


Building a Reprise

by Verdantei (Zerrat)



Category: RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Epic pretending to be a mission fic apparently, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Grimm hunting, Mission Fic, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Team Dynamics, Trauma, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Vague Post-Canon AU, political corruption
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 02:48:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 151,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10323875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zerrat/pseuds/Verdantei
Summary: A year after Salem's fall, Team RWBY has reunited to take on a contract in Mantle. Between Ruby's lingering crush on her partner and a Grimm forcing hunters to become the hunted, the mission hasn't quite been the reunion she'd wished for.Things aren't easy when so much has been unsaid between her and Weiss, though, and it's going to get worse before it gets better.





	1. Mantle 101

**Author's Note:**

> Bit of a get-together White Rose fic set against a backdrop of a hunting/mission fic. Plus some established but early days Bumbleby. ;D
> 
>  **Content Warnings:** Canon-typical violence and action, injury, depictions/examinations of the Grimm's victims and plenty of bittersweetness and angst.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team RWBY arrives in Mantle, and Ruby is very much not over Weiss. It’s obvious to everyone but the one person who matters.

_Solitas really is as boring as Weiss used to say,_ Ruby thought with a quiet sigh, leaning on her armrest with her chin in the palm of her hand. Outside the transport's foggy window, endless rocky brown fields streamed along, mind-numbing enough that even Ruby's boundless energy had dulled, leaving her with only an impatient itch between her shoulder blades. 

They'd been cooped up in the transport for hours since they'd boarded at the port, and where Ruby's brief glimpses of Atlas had shown a shining city, brimming with brand new technology and buzzing with life and activity, the land around Mantle's city limits was definitely… _different._ Broken up by jagged mountains, harsh cliffs and fields even mountain goats would struggle to thrive in, there wasn't a whole lot of natural charm to the continent at all. 

Ruby sighed again, abandoning the harsh countryside to glance around the bus' cramped interior. As seemed inevitable these days, though, after a moment of attempted self-control, her gaze flickered across to her partner, occupying the seat beside her.

After the first hour of travel, Weiss' stubbornness had finally failed her, giving way to the bone-deep exhaustion Ruby knew had been plaguing her since Team RWBY had reunited. She'd been asleep for the better part of the last two hours, and every so often, Ruby would catch the sound of her soft snoring over the hum of the engine. 

Feeling braver than usual, what with Yang and Blake occupying a pair of seats closer to the front of the transport, Ruby looked back to Weiss again, studying her. Even asleep, Weiss bled tension--from the tight cross of her arms against her chest, the dark circles beneath her eyes, to the hard press of her forehead against the dewy window. 

As completely over the whole ride as she was, Ruby was grateful Weiss had gotten the chance to rest up a bit, at least. She'd quickly noticed that Weiss hadn't been sleeping well on the boat ride from Mistral, lying awake and playing around on her scroll at odd hours. 

Ruby wasn't one to throw stones as far as that went--insomnia was an old friend even back at Beacon, but Weiss had always been a solid sleeper even during the worst of the Salem crisis. 

It probably had something to do with returning to Atlas, Ruby had realised after the second night on the boat and Weiss had still been above deck after midnight. She couldn't help but feel a little frustration, even now--she'd asked Weiss over text, repeatedly, if taking the Mantle contract had really, _actually_ been okay, but every time, Weiss had claimed things were fine. 

Ruby snorted beneath her breath, watching Weiss' reflection in the glass. She was pretty sure by now she'd been sold a bunch of white lies, but as maddening as that was, it was still normal. Weiss had always carried her thoughts close to her chest, even after all the years they'd spent together as partners. 

_"Best teammate ever"_ apparently only ever applied when Weiss was trying to be there for Ruby, and not when it came to trusting Ruby with whatever was on her mind instead. It wasn't fair. Weiss gave so much--Ruby just wanted to be able to return the favour.

Maybe she sensed Ruby was hiding something from her. 

Ruby's smile faded at the thought, and gloomy, she turned her attention back out the window. Outside, the rocky fields had given way to layers upon layers of fences, all electrified barbed wire and cracked pavement that brought to mind Mountain Glenn a little too strongly. 

Curiosity piqued, Ruby straightened from her slouch, and careful not to jostle Weiss from her rest, she craned to see out the window. 

_Mantle,_ she thought, as the first of the buildings within the city's limits came into view. Abandoned structures, gutted by explosions and signs of fighting, bullet holes riddling the sides. Amongst it all were shops, houses--even kids playing in the streets. 

Where Atlas had shone, Mantle had fought tooth and nail for its survival. As long ago as they were, Ruby could still remember bits and pieces of the caffeine-fuelled lectures on Atlesian history with Doctor Ooblek. Left to fend for itself after the continent's population had re-centred in Atlas, Mantle lacked the security provided by the Atlesian army--despite the fact that many people had still lived there and called it home. 

Where people congregated, however, so too did Grimm. That was why Mantle had become known for being a hotspot for some of the most highly paid hunting contracts--and some of the most dangerous Grimm. 

Ahead of her, Yang was waving for Ruby's attention, pointing at something out the transport's window. Nodding to her sister, Ruby looked back out--was that a clocktower? Frowning, she thought she remembered something about a clocktower from the digital contract Blake had sent each of them, even if the significance was a little beyond her. 

Before she could think to dig out her scroll from her back pocket, the transport jostled hard as it took a sharp turn. Right on cue, Ruby felt Weiss tense and jerk away from the window. Her thoughts scattered like petals in the wind, and she carefully settled back down next to Weiss, waiting. 

It still took a few moments for Weiss to manage reorient herself. 

"I'm not asleep," Weiss told Ruby, her words made a total lie by the roughness of sleep in her voice. 

Ruby suppressed a small laugh. "Never said you were."

Grudgingly, Weiss' sleepy gaze flickered across to Ruby. Perhaps if she hadn't looked so groggy, her scowl might have been remotely threatening--but then again, Ruby had long since come to appreciate the soft heart Weiss pretended she didn't have. 

Even so, Ruby's heart flipped over in her chest the moment Weiss finally relented, answering Ruby's smile with a hint of her own. For what was probably the thousandth time since they'd all agreed to take on the contract and reassembled Team RWBY in Mistral, Ruby groaned internally. 

She was in way, _way_ over her head when it came to Weiss Schnee. 

A part of her had honestly believed that a year apart, following the end of things with Salem, would have been enough to grow out of the dumb crush she'd developed on her partner. That idea had fallen to bits the moment she'd laid eyes on Weiss at the Haven's gates, and every small smile and tiny laugh Ruby had earned herself since had practically been a hammer strike, fracturing whatever lies she'd tried to tell herself when they'd been apart. 

Their friendship had meant everything to Ruby, through Beacon, through the Salem conflict and in the hazy hours immediately after. Dumb crush or not, Ruby couldn't bear even the _thought_ of losing that connection, her very best friend--and she couldn't stand taking it away from Weiss, either. 

Weiss needed friends more than she needed yet another hopeless crush. It was with that in mind that every time Ruby felt nearly dizzy with affection for her partner... she swallowed it, somehow pretending nothing had changed between them. 

"We're almost there," Ruby said, more to distract herself from the giddy affection in her chest than to really inform, and _oh no_ Weiss was yawning, so wide that she couldn't quite cover it with her hand.

Ruby ducked her head, and she really, really hoped her cheeks hadn't gone as red as they felt. 

"I can see that." Weiss exhaled, pressing the heel of her hand to the bridge of her nose as she added, "Very observant."

Ruby's smile faded, and god she wished she was faster on her feet when it came to words. Her semblance was speed, why couldn't she come up with something a little more clever? Unbidden, the memory Neptune's flirting back at Beacon swam to the front of her mind. He'd been cool, calm and totally collected, delivering his lines with a confident smile. 

He'd been everything Weiss had practically swooned over. He'd been everything Ruby really... wasn't. 

"I've never really been to Mantle, you know?" Ruby tried again, scrambling away from the direction her thoughts had taken. "Or Atlas."

Weiss made a small sound beneath her breath. "I rather doubt you'd have really enjoyed Atlas for long, for what it's worth."

"Why not? It's where Penny was made!" Careful, Ruby nudged Weiss in the shoulder with a loose, playful fist. "And where _you_ grew up."

"It's also completely governed by an army and nothing like Vale. Or Patch, for that matter."

"You're probably right." Ruby sighed then, looking back out the window. It seemed like they were going to pull up to the station soon, and she was sure that some fresh air would help Weiss' bad mood way more than Ruby's fumbling attempts. 

"That said," Weiss said after a long moment of silence, a low note of hesitance in her voice. "There are plenty of weapon shops in Atlas. You'd probably like those just fine."

Ruby was pretty sure her smile was megawatt. _"Now_ you're talking!"

It was a few minutes before the transport pulled into Mantle Central Station, and even before the vehicle had come to a halt, Ruby caught a flash of bright gold hair as Yang surged to her feet up ahead. Her sister would be all pent up energy by now, and she'd beat the crowd to be first off or fall on her face trying. 

Ruby could empathise--they'd spent a really, really long time in cramped spaces and tight quarters over the past week, and a real chance to stretch their legs felt way overdue. Instead of racing to beat Yang off the transport to claim the title of "winner", however, Ruby climbed to her feet and offered her weary partner a helping hand. 

Weiss accepted her hand with an arched eyebrow. "Surprised you're not hot on her heels."

"Well, you know," Ruby replied, giving Weiss a vague wave of her hand that she honestly wasn't sure meant anything. Around her, people were streaming past them, but Ruby lingered by Weiss' side, her heart beating a mile a minute as she looked everywhere but directly at the cause. _I'm kinda more preoccupied with you._

Weiss scoffed beneath her breath at Ruby's non-answer but thankfully didn't press for more, rising to the tips of her toes as she reached up to grab her bags. The pull of her coat at her shoulders, the way it had ridden up just a bit to expose the shirt at the small of her back--

Ruby's breath froze in her throat, and her cheeks flashing hot, she glanced away again in a hurry. Was her hood too warm? She was pretty sure it was and she was going to die, right here, right now.

_Distraction. Now._

"Sure you don't need a hand getting all that down?" Ruby asked, looking back to see Weiss struggle to find the last bag. With a smile she hoped was totally casual, she added, "Without your platforms, I think you're even shorter than you were at Beacon."

That drew an immediate response, old wounds reopening as Weiss shot her a glare over her shoulder. While they'd always been close in height, Ruby had eventually outpaced her, even if she'd remained lean and wiry.

"Firstly, I'll have you know I have absolutely grown in height since _Beacon._ Secondly--" Weiss waved her free hand toward her feet, a small white glyph blooming to give her those vital extra inches, "--I can manage myself just fine, Ruby."

The use of her semblance to make the point was as petty as it was hilarious. 

Ruby tilted her head, her grin becoming insolent as she reached up to easily grab her own bag. "Semblances are cheating and you know it."

Weiss rolled her eyes as she grabbed her final piece of luggage, her glyph fading away as her heels hit the floor once again. "I'll be sure to remember _that_ the next time you decide to use yours to win a footrace I never actually agreed to."

Ruby brightened. "Speaking of--last one off the bus has to buy lunch!"

"Ruby!"

Weiss' voice chased Ruby through the transport as she embraced her semblance. It was both comforting and alarming at how easily Ruby found herself falling into this pattern with Weiss. Conversation, when Weiss wasn't brooding, came so easily. Ruby just wished it felt less like she was flirting with her best friend and more like she was just bonding with her. 

Sometimes, she found herself having trouble telling it apart--at least until until she was staring at it in hindsight, completely mortified by her actions. 

By the time Ruby swept off the transport in a rush of petals and speed, Yang and Blake were waiting on them. Whatever quiet conversation that had been going on between them had fallen silent as Yang had turned to her, feigning surprise. 

"Oh, you're done flirting already?" Yang squinted at her then, and to Blake, she whispered loudly, "I think she might be improving."

Blake offered Yang a look, her tone muffled from the way she'd burrowed into her layers of sweaters as she replied, "I'd say it was more a case of flirting too hard and then beating a quick retreat. Am I close?"

Ruby's shoulders sagged, and feeling well and truly betrayed, she scowled at the both of them. "Can we maybe not tease me where she might _hear you_?"

Laughing, Yang slung her prosthetic arm around Ruby's shoulders, her other hand reaching out as she gently pinched Ruby's cheek. "Sorry. Let me enjoy my baby sister's first crush! I've never gotten to have this."

Ruby felt her face burn hot again--she was so sick of blushing, she really was--and she groaned. "I never once teased you about Blake, you know."

"Your loss, my gain?" 

"If you're not careful I'm gonna kick you off the team!" Ruby pushed her way free of Yang's freezing metal hold, frowning at her. "I'd like to see you make a joke about _that_."

"I'd like to think the real joke would be the team, without my dazzling good looks and incredible sense of humour."

Finally out of patience, Blake stepped between the two of them, holding up her hands to stay any further argument. "Can we potentially talk about what the plan is, now that we've made it to Mantle?"

"Blake's right," Weiss said from just behind them, and Ruby couldn't quite help the way she twitched and looked over her shoulder. How long had she _been_ there? If Weiss had heard any of Yang's suggestiveness, though, she didn't show it. 

"We should check in on our accommodation, check out the local hunter resources, and..." Weiss continued, oblivious to Ruby's racing heart, ticking off items on her gloved fingers. "Talk to the party who put out the contract in the first place to let them know we're here."

When Ruby looked back toward Yang and Blake, they were nodding. 

"It's been a long day already," Blake said, rolling her shoulder beneath all those sweaters and stretching her neck with a weary sigh. "The rumours weren't wrong--Atlesian security is certainly something else. Especially if you're a Faunus."

"So, you and me can check out the digs. Maybe indulge in a little TLC?" Yang questioned, and they exchanged a look that Ruby was fairly certain should have come with an indecency warning before pumping her fist. "Alright, I'm game!"

Their intention was not lost on Ruby, and flushing hot, she busily acquainted herself with the crowds still milling about Mantle Central Station. If the apartment was officially a no-go zone for the next few hours, that left only two remaining options for her and Weiss. 

"Do you think Weiss and I should go talk to--"

"We should all be there when we go see her," Blake said, and her expression was thoughtful when Ruby looked back to her with a frown. "That way we can all get the same information. Ask the same questions."

"Agreed," Weiss replied, for all that the accompanying sigh was long-suffering. "No point doubling up."

"Right. Yeah." Ruby nodded, hesitant at first, but growing more sure. If Weiss had agreed so readily...

"You and Weiss should take a look around Mantle. Get the lay of the land!" Yang's grin didn't hold a hint of trickery.

Blake nodded, her golden eyes gleaming with hidden mirth. "And those hunter resources Weiss mentioned. Chances are there's some cheap food somewhere."

For all that her stomach growled at the mere mention of the word 'food', Ruby crossed her arms, still feeling entirely sold out by the pair of them as they set her up on what felt really, really like a _date._ She glowered at the pair of them as Blake grabbed Weiss' bags, but as Yang reached for Ruby's, she jerked it out of reach. 

"What are you _doing?"_ she seethed to Yang beneath her breath, before relenting and shoving her bag at her sister's face. 

Yang caught it easily with one hand, and the smile she flashed Ruby's way was reassuring as she whispered back, "Helping. You're _welcome."_

Ruby's jaw set, and eying the back of her sister's head, she was sorely tempted to try her luck in dragging Yang down into a headlock and noogie combo sure to start a brawl. Thinking better of it--next time, maybe--Ruby instead looked back to Weiss. Her partner was giving her a very tired stare, and that was enough to remind Ruby that they were adult huntresses. Rough-housing was looked on poorly, especially when huntresses could throw one another right through the side of a building. 

Getting away with her plan appallingly scott-free, Yang swept a grand bow to Blake, the two of them sharing a smile before vanishing into the milling crowds. Now minus all belongings but their weapons and lien, Ruby cast Weiss a cautious, sidelong look, still just a little worried about her reaction to the whole thing. 

"They're ridiculous." Weiss rolled her eyes when she caught Ruby's stare, her tone one of exasperation. "They've been dating, what, six months now? Honestly."

Ruby forced a laugh, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly and happy enough to take the distraction. "Yang's missed her a lot while we were travelling. It's gotta be hard, when your relationship is super new and all you have is a call or a text here and there."

Weiss made a sound that might have been agreement, but Ruby's response faded from her mind when she felt her scroll buzz in her jacket pocket. Scowling, she slid her scroll open to read Yang's message, because of course it was _Yang._

_Try not to get too flirty with her, you might scare her off. ;)_

Growling, Ruby very nearly threw her scroll at the nearest wall.

###

"Oh my god."

Yang was the first one through the door of the cheap apartment they'd rented for the duration of the contract, and immediately--and endearingly, Blake felt compelled to add--she'd made a b-line to figure out where the bedrooms were. Slipping through the front door and locking it behind her, Blake tracked the sound of Yang's voice, joining her where she'd leaned an arm against the doorframe of one of the bedrooms. 

Blake held her silence as she leaned around Yang's bulkier body, giving the offending bedroom a skeptical once-over. A double-bed. How very damning. 

Her gaze cut toward Yang, who was clearly waiting on some sort of response. Judging by the pure delight in her smile, Blake made an on-the-spot decision that it would be better for everyone if she just... humoured Yang. 

"Okay, you've got me. What's so interesting about a bedroom--other than the obvious?"

Yang's grin edged wider. "Check out the other room." 

Blake's eyebrow rose a fraction at that, and she looked over her shoulder toward the other bedroom. Another double-bed, identical to the first, and as the details clicked in place, Blake felt the corner of her lips curl into a smile. 

"Two double-beds."

"Bingo," Yang said with a laugh, offloading Ruby's extra baggage in the doorway of the first bedroom. "Two double-beds. Congratulations, Ruby, I didn't have to do squat--you played yourself."

Setting Weiss' bags down with a great deal more care than Yang had given Ruby's, lest the entire apartment explode in a noxious Dust concoction and they lost their bond, Blake asked, "Do you think she knew when she leased the place?"

"Do you really think we'd still have this place if she did?" Yang countered, crossing her arms against her chest as she leaned against the opposite doorframe, tilting her head to the side with a crooked smile. 

"The schadenfreude is quite entertaining," Blake admitted, warmth suffusing her chest. That particular smile of Yang's--quieter, but no less beautiful--had always made her feel every corny cliche in the book. 

" _Exactly._ " Yang laughed again, running her fingers through her loose, golden hair as if she wasn't purposely trying to look as stunning as possible. "How much do you want to bet on which one of them pretends they want to sleep on the floor, rather than share a bed?"

Blake rolled her eyes, closing the distance between them with slow, even strides. Setting her hand to Yang's cheek, she leaned in, brushing her lips against the warm line of Yang's jaw as she murmured, "I'd rather make a bet on how quickly Ruby will beg you to bunk with her instead."

Yang stiffened, her eyebrows drawing down in pure alarm as she rocked back. "Hey, don't even kid around about that. You know I'd have to, if she pulled the puppydog eyes out."

Blake stifled her laugh with the back of her hand. While she absolutely loved that Yang cared so much for her sister, they'd been reunited barely a week and dating for less than six months. She could sympathise with Ruby's troubles in love, she really could. This time, however, Ruby was just going to need to reap what she'd sown. 

"I'm naturally resistant to that trick, so if she tries... just direct her to me." 

Worry melting like ice before a bonfire, Yang smiled down at her. "I knew I liked you for a reason. To talk tough to my baby sister--because I sure can't."

"If that's the only reason..." Blake trailed off, her eyes narrowing as she let her gaze drop up and down Yang, just so her implications were perfectly clear. "Maybe I should bunk with Weiss after all."

Before Blake's aura could even spark a warning, Yang lunged for her, mechanical arm curling about her waist and hoisting her onto her shoulder in a rush of warm air and delighted whooping. Choking back a surprised laugh, Blake clutched at Yang's back, the sensation of strength and heat beneath her fingers enough to remind her exactly what she was pretending to threaten. 

As if sensing the direction of her thoughts, Yang looked down over her shoulder, the curl of her lips pure self-confidence. "Do it then, Belladonna. I dare you." 

Refusing to be outdone so quickly, Blake twisted in Yang's grasp, the sudden change of weight distribution sending them both crashing to the bedroom floor. Tangled between Blake's legs, Yang was still laughing as she struggled to right herself. She was beautiful, she was wonderful, and finally they were together--what else could Blake do than just kiss her?

###

Getting the "lay of the land", as Yang had so helpfully put it, was way easier said than done. Mantle was big--way bigger than Vale, and even with the dubious assistance of both the locals and a newly-purchased map, it was hard not to find themselves turned around. Having relinquished the lead some hours ago, Ruby trailed several paces behind Weiss, content with taking in the new city around them.

Mantle, it seemed, had a healthy appreciation for hunters. Given that the city's safety relied so heavily on them, it actually made a whole lot of sense, and whatever governing body actually ran the place had put in some serious effort. 

In the past half-hour alone, they'd passed so many Dust stores, weapons supply depots, hostels and bookstores geared specifically toward magic, semblance and Grimm that Ruby had long ago lost count. All of them had boasted extravagant subsidies for hunters in Mantle on a contract, the price cut enough for even Weiss to double-take. 

Anything, it seemed, to keep a hunter lingering for just a little longer, to pick up a few more contracts before they moved on. When you had cheap accommodation, low-cost supplies and a heck of a lot of jobs, Ruby could see how easy the choice became. 

As interesting as Mantle was, however, the weather remained miserable. Spring? As if. The biting cold swept through her with every shift in the wind, and by the time Weiss finally asked her where the apartment was meant to be located, Ruby couldn't help but heave a sigh of pure relief. 

"Think we've given them long enough?" Weiss asked, examining the map in her hands. Her expression was completely neutral as she tilted it, allowing Ruby a better view. 

Her own expression sour, Ruby gave her a shrug. "If we haven't, we're gonna be really, really sorry about it when we find them making out on the floor." 

Determined to shove those particularly harrowing images from her head, Ruby looked down at the map with a more critical eye. Weiss had marked a cross on the map over their destination with a red pen, and even at a glance, Ruby guessed that it wasn't all that far. Just a shortcut through an old, demolished lot or two, and they'd find themselves in the right district.

It was only then that Ruby realised how closely she'd leaned into Weiss' side, an addictive warmth she'd sought instinctively. Ruby could practically _hear_ the freeze-frame-record-scratch, and panicked, she went rigid. Was there a way she could pull away, without it becoming super obvious what she was so worried about? 

"Don't remind me." Weiss sighed, folding the large map of Mantle into a thick square before pocketing it. Her cheeks were red from the cold, Ruby noted a little vaguely, her mouth completely dry, but fortunately she hadn't spared Ruby another glance. Instead, she nodded to a shop across the street. "That looks like an adequate place to stop and resupply."

Blinking, Ruby tracked her gaze. It looked like a co-op food store, and with a fierce desperation, she seized on it.

"Easy way to burn time!" Her words came in a rush, a poor disguise as she scrambled to kickstart her brain into something more than a lovesick daze. "That's awful low-budget of you, I'm kinda impressed!"

Weiss paused, the reaction so fleeting Ruby wondered if she'd imagined it, but said nothing further as she pulled away to cross the pothole-riddled street. Ruby watched her for a moment, frowning, before following along just a few steps behind. 

Whatever was bugging Weiss could afford to wait. Now that Team RWBY had been reunited, Ruby had enough time to nudge her over it later.

###

The store was disappointingly busy--just like a lot of Mantle, Ruby noted the growing pattern with an internal sigh. It was larger than most of the other shops she and Weiss had checked out so far, rows of both fresh and preserved foods forming what looked more like a maze than a series of shelves.

Weiss had merely offered her a snort when Ruby had whined dramatically at the task ahead of them, taking the lead once again when Ruby had lingered just a little too long in her feigned horror. 

_Could I be any worse at this conversation thing? It's like I'm not even trying, except that I'm totally trying and it's failing,_ Ruby groaned at herself, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. Ahead of her, she watched Weiss thread behind a couple of huntresses commandeering several armfuls of egg cartons. 

Eager to redeem herself, Ruby used a touch of semblance to whirl past the huntresses, ducking in front of her partner in the space of an instant. Just as planned, Weiss jolted at her sudden reappearance, backing up a step as she very nearly walked into Ruby. 

Straightening just in time to catch Weiss' forearm before she managed to knocked over nearest shelf, Ruby said with a grin, "Leaders first! You never know when the leeks are gonna get feisty."

While Weiss rolled her eyes, she didn't raise a word of protest as Ruby led the way. 

The food store was busy enough that Weiss had to trail behind Ruby for the most part, the both of them carefully weaving around all sorts of hunters and Mantle residents. A part of Ruby was delighted--where there were hunters, there were corresponding weapons and semblances and all different styles of fighting. She could have had a complete _field day_ with just the first dozen, but despite her delight... she still found her gaze flickering back to Weiss. 

Well, at least when she wasn't looking around for the next item on her mental checklist.

Ruby had noticed how a few of the people shot her partner glances, and as they both squeezed between a few open crates of pasta and rice, she let herself frown. Weiss hadn't seemed to bat an eyelid, though, letting Ruby pick and choose the food required without further remark. 

It was only when they finally headed for the checkout that Weiss finally left her, instead heading for a booth at the side of the store. Ruby couldn't help but let her gaze linger on her partner's retreating back, smiling slightly. It was stupid, but she'd really missed Weiss. 

"Your friend is brave."

Ruby twitched, looking back over her shoulder to the man at the counter, forcing a guilty laugh at having been caught staring. She actually wasn't quite sure what was meant to be so brave about food shopping, but Weiss was as brave as any partner she could ever have asked for. 

"Yeah, I guess so?" she tried, beginning to unload the basket of food she'd had balanced in the crook of her elbow. 

The man squinted at her, his expression guarded and thoughtful as he began to process the items. "You're not from around these parts, are you? Huntress?"

That was an infinitely easier topic than Weiss _in general_ , and Ruby flashed him a grin as she told him, "Oh, yeah, we just came in on boat for a contract. Our team's here to kick some monster ass, you know."

The man stared at her for a long, awkward moment, before he laughed. "Of course. Where on Remnant are my manners? Auret." 

Pausing in her efforts to unload the basket, Ruby accepted his extended hand, giving it a firm shake. "Ruby. My partner over there is Weiss."

"I know," he replied, a wry twist to his voice as he began to scan the cans of tuna Ruby had started to stack at his elbow. "And which contract might your team be here on? We listen to an awful lot of hunter business in here, you know."

Ruby shrugged, helping Auret begin to bag up the packs of cookies she'd snuck in before Weiss had noticed. "Contract wasn't really heavy on detail, which is what made one of my friends so interested in it in the first place."

Blake had been the one who'd found the Mantle contract, buried in the back notices distributed to the Menagerie hunting branch. She'd sent it through to Ruby with one comment. 

_Think it's time for a Team RWBY reprise?_

Of course, Ruby and Yang had been travelling Mistral together at that point and they'd both jumped at the chance to reunite with the others. As for Weiss...

Ruby frowned, uncomfortable. "It's meant to be hunting in this area. Bodies found in the streets if they're lucky, and nothing at all if they're not."

Auret tilted his head, thoughtful. "Whatever that beast is, it's gotten the better of a lot of huntresses and huntsmen in the past few months. Teams, even."

Despite the seriousness of his warning, Ruby offered him her most confident, Yang-like grin. "It hasn't crossed paths with Team RWBY yet, and I don't like its chances now that we're here."

He laughed at the fist pump Ruby had added to the very end, finally finishing ringing her up and presenting her total without comment. "Say no more, and I wish you all the best of luck. Mantle's a dangerous place already, without this particular Grimm lurking about."

Ruby paid and grabbed the bags, mentally sighing at the lightness of her wallet before stuffing it into her jacket's front pocket. The sooner they got this job done, the sooner they could get paid the seriously hefty bounty--at least maybe then she'd feel less like she was living hand to mouth.

Weiss was waiting for her outside the store, coat collar popped against the cold, her cheeks red and her gaze distant, but as Ruby approached, she seemed to sharpen. It was only when Ruby drew level with her that she realised Weiss was holding two coffees. 

Setting some of her bags on the ground for Weiss to take instead, Ruby accepted the offered coffee with a blink. "Thanks?"

Weiss snorted beneath her breath. "Don't. It's terrible." 

Curious, Ruby took an experimental sip, and she couldn't quite manage to keep herself from pulling a face when the bitter, scalding brew hit her tongue. 

Choking back her first instinct to spit it back out, she gulped it down with a shudder, wiping her hand on the back of her fingerless glove as she grumbled, "You know, usually I think you're making that up, but that's actually gross. Did you pick up any sugar?"

Weiss' lips quirked at that, and she dug a gloved hand into her pocket, producing another handful of paper sugar sachets. "The obligatory five isn't enough?"

"Pretty sure _ten_ isn't gonna be." Moving to one of the rickety, unsafe looking benches on the sidewalk, Ruby set her coffee and bags down, before carefully popping the lid off to add the sugars. When she was done, she hesitated only a heartbeat before she took a seat instead.

Weiss followed her lead, and Ruby had to be careful not to give away how completely _delighted_ she was about that. Instead, she took another grudging sip of coffee. 

Grossness aside, at least the brew was hot--Mantle was great bit colder than what Ruby had come to take for granted in the southern parts of Vale and Mistral. She wasn't a portable heater like Yang, she hadn't been built tough like Blake, and Weiss...

Weiss had grown up in this cold wasteland, however affluent her family had been. 

Now that Ruby had spent a proper amount of time outside and _not_ cooped up on a bus, she was honestly wondering if she should have had her dad send her fur-lined jacket and hood by mail. Was it too late for that? With a bitter shiver and burying her nose in her coffee, she leaned against Weiss' shoulder, intent on stealing as much body heat as she could get away with before Weiss began to fuss and move away. 

Weiss, however, said nothing. That was... surprising, and Ruby tilted her head, shooting her partner another glance out the corner of her eye. 

God, Weiss had always been so pretty, even when they'd first met in Beacon and Ruby had found herself on the wrong side of that prickly temper. In the years since, that beauty had only grown more heart-breaking as Weiss had become more confident of herself outside her name, became more of the _Weiss_ Ruby had come to adore and admire so much. 

Honestly, Ruby's vocabulary failed her every time she tried to come up with a way that described just how incredible her partner really was, how lucky she'd been to blindly run into her in initiation, to have had her watching Ruby's back as they'd descended into Salem's hell.

Right on cue, Ruby's heart gave another of those stupid, awkward thuds, and she hastily turned her eyes to the pavement instead. 

_This stupid crush is gonna kill me,_ Ruby thought, despairing as her cheeks began to warm. _No, it'll wreck my friendship with Weiss, and then **Weiss** is gonna kill me._

She knew exactly how Weiss treated unwanted suitors. Heck, she'd even discussed it at length with Jaune, back when she'd been trying to convince him to maybe stop with the attempts at wooing Weiss. 

Ruby took a morose, stubborn sip of terrible coffee, intent on finishing it. It was the only thing that was remotely warm out here--other than Weiss, Ruby amended, even as her thoughts shied away from that constant can of worms. More, it was something Weiss had gotten for her. 

At this point, Ruby was certain she'd happily set herself on fire if that was what Weiss wanted. Weiss was... everything, and Ruby owed her the very best effort. 

_Best teammate ever. That goes for the both of us._

"So... Mantle is different," Ruby tried, reaching down into one of the shopping backs and snagging a small pack of cookies to take the edge off the awful coffee. Popping it open, she held the open bag toward Weiss. 

Weiss made a sound under her breath that Ruby knew to read as agreement, obediently accepting one of the cookies before Ruby could insist too hard. She held it between her gloved thumb and forefinger, her blue eyes absent and thoughtful as she looked down at it. 

"Doctor Ooblek always talked about this place like it was a ghost town, though," Ruby added, when the silence had continued, trying to draw Weiss into a proper conversation. Weiss had always loved sharing knowledge, even back when Ruby hadn't bothered to appreciate it. "There seem like there are plenty of people. Maybe even too many people."

Weiss glanced across at her, then. "Mantle was the centre of population on Solitas before Atlas. Of course people still live here."

"Yeah, but I mean it's not like Mountain Glenn, is it?" Ruby shrugged, swallowing her cookie and washing it down with more coffee. She made a face. "As tough as it's been on them, they've been able to stay. Just... adapted."

"Their hunter programs are quite ingenious," Weiss agreed, a small smile curving her lips in a way that made Ruby's heart skip a beat all over again. "I just wish it hadn't been necessary. This place was abandoned in the pursuit of the future, technology, safety--Atlas. It's no coincidence that the population here is mostly Faunus, either."

The silence fell between them again, heavier this time. Ruby looked down at the empty packet of cookies in her hand, sighing softly, before crumbling it up into a ball. It seemed like Weiss was just a little too preoccupied with whatever was on her mind these days. Ruby just had to remember not to take it to heart, any more than Weiss did when she had her own dark moments. 

Out of the corner of her eye, though, she saw a hint of a smile on Weiss' lips as she finally took a bite from the cookie she'd been nursing all this time. 

"We should get back," Weiss said eventually, squinting down the busy Mantle street. Ruby tracked the direction of her gaze--in the distance, she saw that clocktower again, rising high amongst the buildings. "That looks like the hunter headquarters. Even if the contract we're here for as already been filled, we should still be able to secure some work."

"It hasn't." 

Weiss' gaze flickered back toward Ruby, and patient in a way that had only come with years, she held her tongue as she waited for an explanation. 

"Well, the guy at the counter said that whatever was eating people was still doing it, so." Ruby shrugged then, and maybe she should have found a reason to move away from Weiss' side but... 

She lingered, enjoying the rare contact while it still lasted. 

Weiss nodded, her expression thoughtful as she looked back down to the coffee cup in her hands. "It's probably a bad thing that I'm actually pleased to hear that. The reward for that one is quite..."

"Frabjous?" Ruby supplied, very carefully resisting the powerful urge to grin when Weiss frowned across at her. 

"That's not even a word." 

Ruby gave her an innocent, wide-eyed look. "Yang says it all the time!"

"Yang's sole authority is on cheap booze and taking hard hits to the head," Weiss said with a scoff, and unable to suppress her laughter any longer, Ruby burst into giggles. 

"Well, you can't argue with her results on those, though!" Ruby managed after a few moments, shooting Weiss a grin she couldn't have stopped even if she'd wanted to try. "You always fall for that, Weiss."

"Your sister's uncouth use of language?" Weiss waved a lofty hand, before glancing back to Ruby with a smile. "Please. As if I'm _wrong._ " 

Humming beneath her breath and feeling so much better, Ruby finished her terribad coffee at the same time Weiss drained her own. With a flourish and an accompanying grin as she rose to her feet, Ruby snagged both of the empty cups and pitched them with a careful throw toward a nearby trashcan. She scored both times, but when she looked back, Weiss was rolling her eyes. 

"You really think you could have done better?" Ruby challenged her, crossing her arms in front of her chest and eyeing Weiss up and down, pretending to judge her. 

"Very mature." Weiss leaned down, taking two of the bags of groceries Ruby had abandoned by the bench. As she straightened, she added, "And of course I could, even were I _blindfolded."_

Laughing, Ruby followed her up the street.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you think Weiss is a useless lesbian, Ruby is apparently just as much of a gay disaster.
> 
> Thank you for reading along with this comparatively gentle beginning! Gotta establish the baseline, so then the darker stuff later hurts even more. ;D
> 
> Also, an appropriate game for every fic I ever write is either "spot the meme" or alternatively, "spot the Destiny reference". Fingerguns for whoever picks 'em out!


	2. Lies of Omission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team RWBY makes the most of their first night in Mantle, but with everything else going on in her life, Weiss feels as though she's barely treading water.

The apartment Ruby had chosen for the team was certainly... something else. Weiss cast a critical eye over their dwelling for the foreseeable future, her heart sinking as she assessed the scorched brick and peeling paint. Over the years, she'd learned to adjust her expectations when it came to their lodgings. 

That hardly implied she couldn't be appalled when the occasion called for it, and the shabby, run-down apartment in one of the worst parts of Mantle absolutely qualified. Muttering beneath her breath, Weiss wondered why on Remnant the team had agreed to let _Ruby_ pick the accommodation. 

Ahead of her, practically shedding petals with all that unharnessed energy, the culprit looked back over her shoulder without a care in the world. The smile Ruby flashed Weiss' way was as brilliant as it was honest, and any complaint Weiss might have had died away on her lips. 

Legitimate criticisms or not, who was she to spoil Ruby's fun? 

"Weiss! C'mon!" Ruby called, already taking the steps up to the front of the apartment two at a time. "You aren't getting paid to stand around and look pretty!"

"You aren't paying me at all!" Weiss snapped back, her cheeks growing hot before she could tighten the leash on her traitor heart. Did Ruby honestly _intend_ to say such things to fluster her, or was it all oblivious banter? 

Ruby turned half a step, passing all her bags to one hand as she reached into her jacket pocket. Weiss barely had time to track the contents before Ruby lobbed the packet at her head, and it was by reflex alone that she caught it. 

"I'm paying you in _cookies_ , actually," Ruby said, and the twist to her voice was insufferably smug. 

_Cookies?_ Weiss stared down at the packet with a grimace. _Where on Remnant did you manage to hide all these at the store?_

Tossing the packet back to Ruby, she replied, _"Lien,_ or I'm getting back on that bus."

"Weiss, don't be like that!" Ruby beamed down at Weiss, and she slid the packet of cookies back into her shopping bags. "We'd be totally lost without you!"

Given that Ruby and Yang had been faring just fine on their own as fully operational huntresses, Weiss rather doubted the truth of that particular claim. Instead of calling Ruby on it, however, she lengthened her stride in an effort to close the distance between them. Before her exhausting partner could barge on into the apartment, Weiss reached out, snagging the back of Ruby's hood between her fingers. 

"Wait."

Ruby frowned over her shoulder, but thankfully, she paused all the same. "For what?"

"Fair warning." Weiss leaned past her, rapping her knuckles against the front door, as loud as she could manage without drawing unwanted attention. Out the corner of her eye, she watched Ruby's expression clear as the facts clicked into place. 

"Oh. _Oh_ , that's actually a great idea." Ruby grinned across at her, silver eyes a sharp contrast to her cold-flushed cheeks. "Wish I'd thought of that!"

"It's nothing." Weiss swallowed the warmth rising up in her chest from that smile. Ruby was too much. Then again, Ruby was _always_ too much, all the time--and when had that been any different?

It would be far too easy for Weiss to allow herself to get caught up in the whirlwind of Ruby's effusive charm, to forget herself and the rest of the world in the scatter of rose petals and impossible warmth. Stupidity and sentimentality, of course, no matter how the curve of Ruby's lips had her heart skipping a beat. 

Looking back out into the street, Weiss focused instead on the sound of someone on the other side of the door fumbling with the lock. It was far, far easier to simply try to sidestep the matter, to ignore it in favour of cold practicality and reason. If she ignored the fire kindling in the pit of her stomach, starved it of air and attention both, then perhaps it would die on its own. 

That had been her working theory for years now--for all that it had proven entirely ineffectual thus far.

After what felt like an eternity of very carefully contemplating the crooked, brass apartment number, the door finally creaked open. The scent of roses lingered in the air as her partner darted ahead, a constant byproduct of her semblance and unrestrained energy both, comforting and familiar. 

Weiss tried not to think about that, either. 

There was just so much that she did not have the energy to think about, a veritable avalanche bearing down on her with every passing moment. 

Blake--who must have answered the door, Weiss realised belatedly, and despite the warmth of the apartment was still wearing an absurd amount of sweaters--led them both to a small kitchen that looked about as poorly maintained as expected. Rust coloured the taps fittings, scorch marks dotted the laminate bench-tops, and Weiss was certain she could smell low-quality Dust refinement attempts lingering in the carpet. 

_Cheap hunter lodgings for sure,_ Weiss noted with a scowl, trying to ignore the bullet holes she could see in the ceiling. _How is this even remotely up to any code, let alone legal to lease?_

Unbothered by the shabbiness of their new accommodation, Blake resumed her seat at the tiny, rickety kitchen table, picking up her book before Ruby could deposit her load of the groceries on top of it. 

"Seems like you two had fun," Blake observed, her tone amused as she flicked to her bookmarked page. This one wasn't a novel, but a copy of the Atlesian Dust array text Weiss had lent her on the boat. One she was most of the way through, it seemed, however infinitely dry the contents. 

"There were _so many_ hunter shops, Blake! You wouldn't believe it even if you'd seen it!" Ruby practically bled enthusiasm as she threw herself into the chair opposite Blake. Weiss watched them both out the corner of her eye, a small smile lifting the corner of her mouth as she began to load the fridge. "Dust shops, weapons stores, even book shops with a _huge_ discount--"

Blake's cat ears flickered at that, and despite the careful neutrality of her expression as she continued to read, Weiss knew she was listening to Ruby's ramblings with rapt attention. "Books" and "discount" were the magic words with her, after all. 

"--and then there's even cheap food! Mantle is so cool, Blake!" Ruby finished in a rush, finally inhaling in the most over-dramatic way possible. Idly, Weiss wondered if Ruby had managed to take a breath even once during the whole spiel. 

Blake had always been able to roll with Ruby's energy, however, and she nodded as she replied, "It's certainly cold enough to earn that descriptor, yes." 

Ruby laughed, picking at one of Blake's over-sized sweaters. "Oh, is it? I didn't notice."

Frowning, Weiss cast Ruby a sour look over her shoulder. "Oh, please. Given the appalling amount of shivering I spent the past few hours witnessing, you're fooling exactly nobody."

Ruby's cheeks went scarlet, but rather than back-peddling, she shot back, "You couldn't let me have this one on her, could you?" 

"Think of it this way--I'm stopping the lie right now, before it gets out of hand." Weiss could see it now--tomorrow, she'd find Ruby walking around outside in _shorts_ rather than admit she might have exaggerated to Blake just the once.

Sniffing indignantly, Ruby wasn't having any of it. "Spoilsport!"

"If you two are quite done?" Blake cut in, but despite the arch of her brow, her tone was one of amusement. She rose to her feet, taking hold of one of the bags Ruby had abandoned on the table. "Weiss, I'll help you stow the food. I think Yang wanted to show Ruby the rest of the house."

Ruby's nose wrinkled at that. "Is she _decent_?"

"As much as ever." Blake's lips curled in a tiny smile, apparently determined to be as unhelpful as possible. She waved a hand toward the rear of the apartment. "She's in the back."

Wordless, Weiss watched Ruby climb to her feet, snagging that packet of cookies from the grocery bag as she went. It was always a surprise how tall she'd grown, even if she'd never quite have the bulk her sister boasted. Her strength was lean, built for more for breakneck speed than brute force, but strength all the same.

Determined not to flush, Weiss turned her attention back toward the fridge's interior, and it was only when she heard Ruby greet Yang that she dared think about the festering tension between her shoulders. Slowly, she let herself exhale.

"Was that so bad?" Blake asked in a low voice, joining Weiss at the fridge with the other bags and passing across the carton of milk Ruby had insisted on. "She's missed you, just as much as you've missed her."

"I wasn't worried." For a Schnee, the lie came easily, but it was a lie all the same. She'd been worried for the better part of a year over what would happen when she finally found herself back with Ruby, with Yang, with Blake. 

She needn't have fretted--each time Ruby smiled at her, that knot of worry strangling her insides began to loosen, every moment she spent with her best friend was _good_ and--after this past year, she'd never dared to believe she'd be this happy again. 

At her shoulder, Blake was silent for a long few moments, before she sighed. 

"You know, once upon a time, a particularly abrasive teammate reminded me I'd made a promise to let my friends know when something was wrong." Blake's words were pitched even lower this time, and Weiss had to strain to hear her over the hum of the fridge. "We're all here for you, no matter what happens."

_She knows,_ Weiss realised with a bitter twist to her mouth, her hands stilling as she loaded the vegetables into the fridge. She could have kicked herself. Of course Blake would have some sense of what was to come--she'd always been sensitive to ripples in the political current, just as Weiss had been trained her entire life to look for. 

The rationality of it did nothing to banish the taste of ash from her mouth, however. Tilting her head back, Weiss fixed Blake with a flat look. "They don't know, do they?"

"Where you've been all this time? Neither of those two are exactly ones to keep abreast of news, and in the wilds of Mistral..." Blake trailed off, shaking her head. Her golden eyes were serious. "Especially not the kind that hasn't quite gone public yet."

That knot of fear in Weiss' stomach twisted hard at that, insistent and undeniable. She wet her lips, her mouth suddenly unbearably dry as she said, "Perhaps that's for the best, then."

Blake's eyebrows rose, and her tone was one of disbelief as she asked, "For Ruby to find out what's going on with her best friend through a _tabloid_?"

Weiss bristled. "That's not what I meant!"

Blake didn't seem bothered in the slightest by the temper flare, merely offering Weiss a shrug. "But that's what will happen, and I'm pretty sure you know it." 

The simple truth of her words was enough to silence Weiss, and she stared up at Blake. A thousand words warred on the tip of her tongue, all of them a desperate, futile challenge to the irrefutable. She discarded every single one of them--all of them flawed and found wanting. 

Just a week away from the mess her life had become--was that too much to ask? She closed her eyes, prepared to tell Blake to mind her own business, when Ruby _howled._

Panic searing through her, Weiss dropped the bag of vegetables to the kitchen floor and surged to her feet. Perhaps she might have used glyphs to aid her speed and perhaps she might not have, but by the time she found Ruby--

Weiss froze, tilting her head to the side, casting a skeptical eye over... whatever it was she'd stumbled across. Ruby was hanging from Yang's back and shoulders, trying to catch her in a headlock so rough it would have bruised anyone but her bone-headed sister. 

"Yang, you can't do this to me, _I'm your sister_ \--"

Yang laughed, trying to pry Ruby from her back with her mechanical arm without a modicum of effort--or success. 

"Oh come _on_ Ruby, as if you aren't totally--" Yang cut off when she finally looked up and saw Weiss. Abruptly, her laughter died, her expression a mix of both horror and pure delight. 

Tipped off by her sister's reaction, Ruby released Yang's neck and looked over her shoulder. She blanched the moment she saw Weiss, dropping to the carpet like a stone. 

Unamused, Weiss arched an eyebrow at the both of them while Ruby reeled on the ground and Yang unsuccessfully attempted to hide her sniggers behind her hand. 

"What?"

Rallying at the sharp demand, Ruby surged to her feet, her expression one of pure panic as she staggered toward Weiss a step. "Oh my god. _Oh my god._ I promise this was an accident, I'd never--"

"Ruby didn't think to check sleeping arrangements before she signed the lease, and now you're bunking together," Yang cut in and hooking a hand in Ruby's hood to hold her back, rolling her eyes at the yelp of indignation it earned her. To Weiss, she flashed a wide smile. "No big deal, right Weiss?"

Weiss blinked rapidly, staring at Yang and trying to make proper sense of those words and that suspiciously bright grin. _Bunking together. What in the world is that meant to--?_

"See?" Yang released Ruby's hood then, clapping her on the shoulder hard enough to send her staggering. "Weiss is chill enough to handle a bit of bed sharing. Don't worry about it! Live and learn, right?"

_Bed sharing._ Weiss felt like she was suffocating, but somehow--god, _somehow_ \--her expression didn't betray a shred of her internal chaos. Desperately, she assessed her options. _Was_ it too much to ask Blake to take mercy on her? No, she couldn't ask that of her friend during her honeymoon period, of course she couldn't--

Ahead of her, Ruby groaned. " _Yang_ \--"

The argument continued as they both retreated into the kitchen. Left alone in the hallway, Weiss stared at the double bed, her mouth dry and her heart pounding a rapid, volatile tempo in her ears. Bed sharing. 

Pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, Weiss exhaled. This wasn't going to make her feelings any easier to manage.

###

Yang was humming an off-tune melody beneath her breath as she worked the pan with the spatula, meat sizzling as she tossed great handfuls of it into the oil. Unsure of what to do with herself, Ruby found herself hovering in the background, leaning against the bench-top. Half of her listened to the sound of Yang's cooking, her gaze drawn by the activity. The other half was still caught on the rise and fall of Weiss' voice in the hallway as she and Blake discussed some super-boring Dust formulae.

Ruby had long since stopped trying to make sense of exactly what they were talking about, but... It had been a really long time since she'd heard Weiss _engaged_ like that, a vivid intensity filtering through her every word that so far had been absent the whole mission. 

It made a little sense, she supposed--Dust was where Weiss _ruled_. 

Ruby shifted her shoulders, uncomfortable and unhappy, frowning absently at the pan of vegetables and meat as she listened to Blake's counter-proposal. Some sort of lightning-based reaction, Ruby gathered, before she was again cast adrift in a sea of impossible jargon. She was glad Weiss was having fun, she really was, but Blake's obvious success where she kept failing just kind of sucked.

_Maybe she's mad at me,_ Ruby wondered, before discarding the idea just as quickly. When Weiss was mad, Ruby would absolutely know it. Weiss Schnee was about as subtle with her temper as a charging boarbatusk, which was what made this whole thing even more confusing. 

If it wasn't anger, then what _was_ it? She didn't know anything about Weiss' life of late, other than the handful of text messages they'd exchanged since they'd all parted ways.

"You know, if you keep glaring at the pan like that, you might go all silver-eyed and wreck the apartment," Yang observed, her words enough to break Ruby's circling thoughts with practiced ease. 

Ruby sighed, trying to manage a smile for her sister and... failing. That seemed to be her fate, today. Looking back out to the hallway, where she could catch a glimpse of Blake's dark sweater, she said, "Just a little distracted, I guess."

Yang hummed beneath her breath, concentrating as she tossed the jumbo-sized pack of noodles into the boiling water at her elbow. "That's a funny way to say 'brooding', but it'll do."

Ruby shot Yang a narrow look, refusing to snap up the _super obvious_ bait her sister had laid out for her. Instead, she kept quiet, watching Yang chop up a handful of chillies to add to the sauce... and another handful. And another. 

Squinting as Yang began to tip the whole lot of it into the pan, Ruby ventured, "Don't you think that's gonna be too hot?"

"This is a totally normal amount of chilli to add. You'll be fine!" Yang laughed, waving her hand dismissively as she winked over her shoulder at Ruby. _"Or_ are you just worried you're gonna watch Weiss' tastebuds burn off? I guess if her tongue is out of commission..."

Again with the teasing about her stupid crush? Unamused, Ruby shrugged, her voice pitched low and easy as she said, "Nah. But I'm just kinda feeling a little sorry for Blake tonight, you know?" 

Yang's smug grin faltered, her expression one of dawning horror as she stared over her shoulder at Ruby. She looked back to the frypan and the spatula, the lot of it red with chilli. 

"Oh. Yeah, I see your point." Yang gave the sauce a hesitant scrape with the spatula, before sighing. "And after all the teasing, I guess I deserved that, too."

Ruby smiled across at her sister, satisfied as she gave a vehement nod. "Yeah, you did."

Yang's answering smile was warm as turning her eyes back to the pot, giving the noodles a stir. Ruby felt the forgotten tension between her shoulder blades begin to loosen, and she watched Yang cook in contented silence. 

"The play date wasn't so bad though, was it?" Yang asked after a long while, her voice low as she grabbed the pot with her metal hand, pouring the boiling water into the colander she'd placed in the sink. "I mean, you didn't seem all dark and broody when you came back." 

Ruby grinned, the expression crooked as she felt herself flush with delight. "It was great. _She's_ great, and every time I think I'm totally cool with that…"

"Sorry to break this to you, but you've never been cool a day in your life." 

Ruby laughed, but it faded too fast, too easily as her thoughts kept circling back to that distant, neutral expression Weiss had worn. Reluctant to spoil her improving mood but deciding she could _talk_ to Yang instead of finding herself teased, she admitted quietly, "There's something bothering her."

Yang snorted beneath her breath. "Other than your constant flirting?"

"Be serious, Yang." Ruby fixed her with a scowl, her jaw firming. 

Holding her hands up in a yielding gesture to stay any further snapping, Yang nodded. "Okay, yeah, she has seemed a little out of it."

"A little?" That seemed like the understatement of the _century_ as far as Ruby was concerned. 

"I don't Weiss-watch the way you do. I got my own bird to look out for." Yang's grin turned filthy as she cast a fleeting look back toward Blake. Shaking her head, she looked back to dinner, turning off the gas burner with a decisive twist, but her expression was thoughtful as she considered Ruby's words more seriously. "But you might be right. She didn't even tell me off for putting my boots on the table this morning."

Ruby hadn't even been there for that, but her heart still twisted painfully. Looking back over her shoulder to where Weiss was still arguing obscure Dust formulae with Blake, she sighed. 

"It's probably nothing…" 

"Maybe she just needs time to loosen up. I think we could all do with some chill time before we get into it tomorrow." Yang grabbed a set of four mismatched, chipped bowls out of the drawer and set them on the bench-top by Ruby's side. Then her expression brightened, and slamming her fist into the palm of her hand, she said, "I got an idea! Leave it with me."

As Yang began to dish up dinner, Ruby couldn't help but squint warily at her sister. Why did she feel like she'd just make a terrible mistake?

###

After dinner, Yang had announced Team RWBY was going out. Despite the exhaustion that was quite frankly apparent in everyone but Ruby, Yang hadn't been taking no for an answer, no matter how Weiss had protested the need for sleep and Blake had tried to convince her to stay in.

"Nope," Yang had told the both of them, and the glint in her eyes had been more than enough of a warning. If Weiss and Blake weren't going to come along quietly, then Yang would carry the both of them over her shoulders like two undignified sacks of potatoes.

Weiss may no longer have been subject to her father's good graces, nor bound by the rules of the social elite, but she could still feel a prickle of alarm at when genuine threat was made against her pride. When Ruby had been completely on board with the idea, practically vibrating on the spot with excitement, that had been the death knell to Weiss' lingering protests. 

There was nothing Weiss wouldn't do for that brilliant smile. It was just as well that Ruby seemed to have a poor appreciation of just how powerful a weapon she had at her command. 

Bundling deeper into her coat and scarf, Weiss trailed along after Ruby and the rest of the team, watching the whirl and whip of that distinctive red cloak in the icy Mantle wind. Nightfall still came early at this time of the year, and with the setting sun came an even more brutal cold that had even Weiss shivering. 

The bar Yang had chosen was just a few minutes walk from their apartment, lit up from the outside by tacky neon signs and up a set of rickety--and absolutely _not_ up to code--stairs. Wary and feeling absolutely justified to be such, Weiss cast a critical eye over the premises. 

_I'm beginning to suspect that 'seedy' is part of the charm for these sisters,_ Weiss thought with an internal groan, wondering if it wasn't too late to simply slip back to the apartment before the rest of the team noticed. She wasn't sure she was in the mood to deal with the dubious package deal of cheap alcohol and terrible music, despite the good company.

As she continued to linger at the foot of the stairs, Ruby turned back half a pace, Yang and Blake heading up into the establishment without her. Her expression was a little hesitant as she looked to Weiss, but despite the way she shivered from the cold, she waited. 

"You ready?"

Weiss eyed her, irritable and derisive. "For probable alcohol poisoning? Or perhaps you're referring to the shady Dust deals surely going down in the back rooms?"

Ruby's smile was slow and cautious, tempered by Weiss' venom but there all the same. "Well, it just seems like you need a chance to unwind, and Yang figured..."

"So obviously we needed to go to the loudest death trap in the neighbourhood." Weiss heaved a sigh, unsure why she was shocked in the slightest--it was rather classic Yang-logic. Perhaps she'd merely suppressed her bad memories of other such occasions. 

For a long moment, they were both silent, listening to the uncouth thud of the music from up the stairs. 

"Yeah, I don't really get it either," Ruby admitted, her breath beginning to rise in a mist before her lips. She shivered, digging her hands into her jacket pockets deeper. "But I guess I don't really need to do anything but trust her. Like you said, Yang knows her booze."

"And her bar fights," Weiss added with a scoff, but despite her best efforts, she could feel herself relenting. The warm onslaught of Ruby's attention made it difficult to stay irritable, even at the worst of times. 

"So shouldn't we be in there to help back her up when things go sideways?" Ruby's smile widened then, the corners of her eyes crinkling in barely suppressed mirth as she added, "Like the best teammates ever?"

"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?" Weiss sighed, returning her teammate's smile with one of her own as Ruby shook her head. "Fine. I concede the point."

Ruby's smile became brilliant, effortlessly stealing Weiss' words away, robbing her of air and caution and her very strength of will to keep her distance. 

Weiss felt her face grow hot as she studied the quirk of Ruby's crooked smile in the partial light, quietly thankful for the darkness and the wash of neon light from the signs overhead. She allowed Ruby to reach out and take hold of her forearm, her grasp cautious at first but growing more certain when Weiss didn't pull away. 

"C'mon! Just for a while?" Ruby asked, tugging her along and up the stairs, and Weiss simply allowed herself to be led. 

Weiss knew she was fiercely independent to a point and prickly to a fault--and that those were descriptors more on the charitable side. She was prone to lash out at anyone and anything that believed they could undermine her will, who thought they could bend her, force her, break her. With Ruby, however, it had never felt like a sacrifice, it had never felt like a _concession_.

But Ruby had always been the exception, hadn't she? She was beautiful, warm and infuriatingly _adorable_ in all of the best ways, forever finding her way beneath Weiss' guard and under her skin with an ease that defied belief. 

Weiss exhaled, defeated. She had to get a hold of herself.

The bar's interior was exactly what the outside had promised--hazy, poorly-lit and brimming with shady hunter-types--and the music pounded so loudly Weiss could scarcely hear herself think, let alone make out anything Ruby might be saying. Before she could rally enough to regret agreeing to this, Ruby tugged her hand again, leading her deeper into the establishment.

They found Yang and Blake occupying an alcove with some ratty-looking armchairs likely older than Atlas itself--but just the three. Her teammates had deigned to share a single spot, Blake tucked into Yang's side in a way that made Weiss want to send them both back to the apartment to get it out of their systems. Instead, she said nothing as she claimed one of the remaining chairs. 

Everything about the bar was harsh, filthy even borderline obscene--and absolutely nothing like the refined and sterile venues Weiss had attended so many meetings and parties with her family. There were tables of people gambling their lien away, a bar serving intoxicated patrons in flagrant violation of every responsible service of alcohol law in Solitas, and yes, there were absolutely Dust deals going down in the corner at prices her father would have had a fit over. 

As a descriptor, 'seedy' didn't do the venue justice. 

A hand at Weiss' elbow drew her back to the present, and startled, she looked up into Ruby's face. Her partner rocked back on her heels, her expression apprehensive as she repeated, 

"I _said_ , do you want anything to drink?"

Surprised, Weiss eyed Ruby from head to toe, then turned her critical stare back to that over-crowded bar to the rear of the venue. She rather doubted a place like this would carry the wine she was partial to, even were she in the mood to spend that sort of lien. 

But she'd already been somewhat of a grouch today, and Ruby _was_ asking... Weiss drew a card of lien from her jacket pocket, passing it to Ruby with a nod. 

"I'll have whatever you're having."

Ruby's expression brightened at that, and she swept away in a whirl of red and rose petals as she headed for the bar. Weiss watched her go, heart twisting in her chest, the scent of petals fresh against the stale smell of booze and bodies. 

"I hope you're prepared for the sugar rush," Blake told her in a low voice, the moment Yang peeled herself away to do the same. 

"I'm sure it won't be that bad," Weiss replied, looking back to her teammate with an arched brow.

"You sweet, summer child." Blake's words were a wry twist, and she settled back in the chair, comfortable despite the loudness of her surroundings. "How very little you know."

Weiss could play along--Ruby had told her to relax, after all. "I believe the usual name is _ice queen."_

"Only when you want to be." Blake crossed her heels, her golden eyes gleaming off-coloured in the neon light. "She's got a unique ability to thaw, don't you think?"

Despite the way her heart skipped a beat, Weiss' voice was level as she tried, "Who, Yang?" 

Blake's stare was both flat and unamused. "You know I meant _Ruby._ Don't pretend to be obtuse, Weiss, you're far too proud for that."

_Fair point,_ Weiss could concede, but only in the privacy of her own thoughts. She looked back toward where Ruby and Yang had made it to the bar--Yang was ruffling her shorter sister's hair with a wicked grin, while Ruby's expression was absolutely crestfallen as she dug around her wallet for something. 

"She's fine." 

Ruby was more than fine--she was optimism and kindness, and entirely too self-sacrificing for her own good. It was something Weiss had come to value beyond measure and envy just as completely. Ruby drew her strength from the good in life, rather than the ice and short fused temper Weiss relied upon. 

Exhaling, Weiss added, entirely truthful this time, "She's been a good friend."

Blake didn't get the chance to respond as Yang returned, swooping in with what looked like a bottle of Vacuo tequila and four shot glasses. Ruby, trailing a few seconds behind Yang, shot Weiss an apologetic look as she reclaimed the set at Weiss' side. 

"Guess which one of us screwed up the order so badly they carded her?" Yang asked with a laugh, settling back beside Blake as she began to unscrew the bottle propped between her legs. "My baby sister isn't growing up as fast as I thought."

_She's grown up plenty,_ Weiss thought, casting Ruby a sidelong glance before she could manage to strangle the thought. Though, to get carded in a place as disreputable as this... Weiss felt herself smirking. 

"Yang took all our lien to buy that one bottle," Ruby told her, loud over the thud of the bass. She ducked her head again as Weiss rolled her eyes. "Sorry. I tried to stop her, I really did."

"I'm sure this will get the job done just as easily as anything else." 

"You know it," Yang interjected with a wink, passing Weiss a shot glass filled well above regulation for a standard drink. Weiss accepted it without a word, watching Yang get to work on the others.

It was only when Yang had poured all four shots that settled back in her chair, raising her own in a toast. 

"To Team RWBY." Yang nodded around at each of them, the wideness of her smile tempered by the genuine fondness in her eyes. "Been way too long since we've been together."

Each of them tossed back the shot. The liquid burned all the way down the back of Weiss' throat, and despite the warmth suffusing her stomach, it twisted. 

At her side, Ruby began to choke on her tequila, however, and Weiss allowed herself to laugh along with Yang and Blake as her partner flushed and wiped the tears from her eyes. 

_Appreciate this while it lasts,_ Weiss told herself. RWBY was her team, her friends, practically her family. Whatever happened next would happen no matter what she did now--but she could enjoy this.

###

"--so there we were, literally _surrounded_ by mutant beowolves--"

Ruby cleared her throat, cutting off Yang's dramatic rendition of their mission. "Take a drink."

"Figured as much," Blake said as she took a swallow of the tequila, elbowing Yang in the side to quieten down the outraged protesting. 

Weiss followed suit, and the pleasant warmth in her stomach prompted her to add, "Unless you were fighting Doctor Merlot again, that is."

Blake nodded, her smile all sharp edges and casual threats as she looked back to Yang. "At which point both Weiss and I fully expected an invite to that party. So--what is the truth, Yang?"

"...you know what? Fair point. I'll allow it." Yang settled back in the chair against Blake, obediently downing a full shot. She'd always had the greatest tolerance from Team RWBY--not that it mattered when she drank like a fish. "So anyway, the _totally normal_ beowolves lunge from the shadows all at once! The whole thing is a complete bloodbath in the town square--"

"Take a drink." Ruby's voice was neutral as she took an unsteady swallow from her glass, but Weiss could see the valiant way she fought her grin. And failed spectacularly, she felt compelled to clarify. That was good--Ruby's smile really was her favourite thing in the world. 

Blake coughed politely, drawing Weiss back to the present and away from dangerous thoughts. "So what happened, really?"

Ruby shrugged, casting Yang a mischievous look. "A totally easy patrol of the forest. Unless this was some _other_ alpha beowolf contract?"

Yang groaned, burying her face in her hands for a moment. "Do any of you have even a little appreciation for the dramatic?"

Weiss scoffed. "More that none of us are quite the braggart you are."

"'Braggart'. Weiss, c'mon," Ruby said with an unsteady giggle more like a snort, her silver eyes dancing as she added, "Even if it's a little true."

Blake laughed, patting Yang's thigh reassuringly. "Don't worry, Yang. I appreciate fiction--but only when it's good."

Yang scowled down at her. "Way to twist the knife in my back, there. But unless there are any more comments on my supposed 'exaggerations', Ruby and I cleaned up the pack and then got paid _handsomely_ for our troubles--"

"Take a drink."

Yang spluttered, pure outrage obvious in her every line as she stared at Ruby. "Hey, that was the complete truth!"

Ruby grinned into her glass, finishing the remnants of the liquid in one swallow before admitting, "Okay, maybe I'm the one exaggerating about your exaggerations."

Weiss felt herself laugh along with the rest of the team, and after a moment, Yang joined in. 

"So enough about _us_ and our travelling huntress stories," Ruby said, looking to Weiss, her expression devastatingly hopeful. "Have you two done anything cool?" 

Weiss paused, swirling the liquid in the bottom of her shot glass between idle fingers, trying to think of a delicate way to put her past year's worth of activity. 

"There have been a lot of places White Fang operations have been expanding," Blake said, buying Weiss precious time to think. "My father has needed me in a new town each week to play negotiator."

Ruby's smile was excited. "Sounds like you get to see a lot of Remnant! Must be pretty cool!"

"I've... appreciated the chance to cross paths with you both in Mistral when I could," Blake conceded with a flush, and she laughed when Yang leaned down to press a kiss to her nose. 

"Likewise."

"Eurgh, _Yang,_ there are people here!" Ruby pretended to gag, pointing to her sister with a wild flail. "Weiss, tell her!"

A lifetime ago, Weiss would have risen to the bait, treating Yang to an hour long lecture on propriety and public image. Of course, a lifetime ago, she might have harboured the mistaken belief Yang gave even half a damn about either of those things. 

These days, Weiss was almost certain Yang had the correct idea after all. 

Instead, Weiss poured herself another drink, downing the lot of it before she said, "Yang's an adult and she can do whatever--and whomever--she likes." Fixing both Yang and Blake with a narrow look, she added, "Though I do hope she has the good grace to excuse herself, before things get too hot and heavy."

"Oh damn, _way to go_ Weiss!" Yang whooped as Ruby flopped back in her chair with a grumble. "So does that mean you've spent the past year surgically removing the stick from your ass or--"

"Yang!" Ruby snapped, and Yang held up both of her hands to stay the unusual temper flare.

"What?! I'm just--"

"I've--" Weiss broke in, before pausing, still unsure how to even begin to describe her past year. "I've been assisting Winter to a significant degree."

It wasn't a lie. 

"Atlesian army stuff?" Ruby asked, her eyebrows rising. She'd never had a modicum of tact, for all that Weiss could forgive her in a moment at a hint of one of those smiles. 

Tonight, though... Weiss fell back to one of Winter's old lines reflexively. "Classified, I'm afraid."

That, too, wasn't quite a lie, however sharp a look it earned her from Blake. 

Yang squinted at her, suspicious as she tilted her head to the side. "Don't tell me you're going to sell out and go all 'Specialist Schnee Mk 2' on us."

"Wait, _what_?" Ruby cut in, her expression dismayed as she snapped her attention back toward Weiss. "Weiss, you're meant to be a huntress with us, not..."

"Don't be absurd. The goal has never changed," Weiss said. The goal never had, but the circumstance... "I'm still a huntress, same as any of you."

Yang beamed at her. "Damn right you are."

Ruby was quiet, and as finely attuned to social currents as Weiss was, she felt the mood in the group shift. It hadn't been her intention, but that answer had been the best she'd been able to do. 

Weiss wanted to laugh, humourless and weary, the warmth in her stomach slowly beginning to sour. How much more would the mood have shifted, was she to have been a trifle more truthful? Out of the corner of her eye, Weiss watched Ruby take another shot. 

Before she could say anything, however, Ruby lurched to her feet--and immediately crashed into the wall in a flurry of petals. 

"Oops," Ruby slurred with an undignified laugh, her cheek still smashed hard against the scuffed plaster. "I think I mighta had a little too much. Maybe. Probably?"

With her insane metabolism, Ruby was normally fine with a few drinks, if a little more boisterous and merry than usual. Exactly how much had she had to drink, then? Thinking only to help her partner, Weiss staggered to her feet. Her own head began to spin, and she caught herself on the back of the armchair with a swallow. 

Perhaps it hadn't been one of her better ideas... 

Still, Weiss' head cleared quickly with a sobering draw of her aura. Over the too-loud music, she leaned in and told Ruby, "Let's get you home."

Beneath the curtain of her dark hair, Ruby stared across at Weiss for a long, confused moment. Then she nodded, unsteady, her cheeks flushed red from the alcohol. Bracing herself, Weiss wrapped her arm about Ruby's shoulders to aid her. With the grace granted only by too much alcohol, Weiss could admit she was still completely taken aback by how solid Ruby had become, her fingers tightening in the fabric of her clothing reflexively. 

_She needs warmer clothes,_ Weiss told herself vaguely, her thoughts completely derailing at every shift of muscle beneath her hands as she helped Ruby pull away from the wall. If she'd been wearing something remotely suitable for Mantle weather, then Weiss wouldn't be able to feel her addictive heat through her shirt sleeves and that would be far better than--

"Lemme give you a hand." Ruby's weight shifted as Yang joined Weiss, sliding an arm about their drunken teammate's waist. 

A part of Weiss wanted to tell Yang that she'd be just fine on her own, but as Ruby stumbled into her and sent her own head spinning again... She supposed she could see the wisdom. 

"Thanks."

Blake said something about waiting on them--the details, Weiss didn't quite have the presence of mind to catch when she could feel Ruby's breath on her neck--and the air outside was freezing when they finally emerged from the bar. Weiss immediately wished she'd thought ahead to draw her gloves from her pocket, but when Ruby began to shiver again, for one wild moment she wondered if she was going to need to offer her coat. 

She needn't have worried--Ruby leaned into her sister like a cat seeking warmth. Weiss couldn't help but feel a little envious of that, for all that she crushed the thought ruthlessly as she helped Yang lead Ruby back toward the apartment. The distance wasn't far, but even that seemed infinite when Weiss had her arm wrapped around the waist of her far too attractive best friend. 

It was going to do her head in. Ruby was too close, smelled far too good, and by the time they finally reached the apartment door, Weiss felt dizzy with relief. Yang patiently bore the whole of Ruby's weight as Weiss fumbled to find her key in her jacket pocket, her fingers frozen and stiff from the cold. 

Eventually triumphant, Weiss grasped Ruby's arm as she helped Yang steer her into the apartment. 

"Dump her on the couch, then you can go back to Blake," Weiss told Yang, her breath freezing in her throat as Ruby laughed and stumbled forward against her.

"I like how strong you are, Weiss," Ruby mumbled against her coat collar, warm and close enough to send a shiver down Weiss' spine. "You make a really good partner. The _best."_

"Not coming back, then?" Yang asked Weiss, gently pulling Ruby back and away with a roll of her eyes. 

"I'm..." Weiss tried, finally able to draw proper breath once Ruby was no longer so dangerously close. "I'm very tired. It's been a long trip. And somebody should look after this moron."

Yang nodded slowly, thoughtful. She reached out, gripping Weiss' shoulder with her free hand. 

"Jokes about sticks aside, it hasn't been the same without you." Yang gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, her smile warm and genuine. "I just... It's good to have you back, Weiss." 

"She's more than good," Ruby added, insistent, as Weiss helped Yang shuffle her through to the kitchen. "She's super cool and I'm super glad she's back with us, and I--"

Yang laughed then, loud enough to drown out Ruby's words. " _Okay,_ easy there, Ruby. Lie down before you hurt yourself."

_Lie down,_ Weiss agreed silently, before the warm buzz in her veins turned icy. Ruby must have sensed her sudden tension, because she looked up at Weiss, her expression an open book of worry. 

"Weiss?"

"I'll take the couch tonight," Weiss said, swallowing hard past the panicked lump in her throat as she and Yang steered Ruby down the hallway.

Apparently, that was not the answer Ruby had wanted to hear. " _Weiss,_ it's okay, I promise I'm not gonna take up the whole bed! Cross my heart?"

Weiss was _not_ going to look at her and fall victim to that kicked puppy look, _absolutely not_ \--

"You heard her, Weiss. No couches tonight." Yang laughed then, more genuine this time, finally allowing Ruby to flop to the bed in a tangled heap of red cloak and long limbs. 

Breathing a little hard, Weiss looked down at her mess of a partner, that dreadful flush of warmth rising in her chest again. She had to stop herself from reaching out to brush away the dark hair that had fallen into Ruby's eyes. 

_Stupidity and sentimentality,_ Weiss had claimed, but it was so much worse than that. 

Reluctantly, she nodded, and it was almost worth the near-heart attack when Ruby beamed up at her. 

"Don't forget what you said about not taking up the whole bed," Weiss warned, even if her heart wasn't really in it. Turning to Yang, she said, "Can you help this disaster get changed while I wash up?" 

"Hey!"

Yang waved a hand, ignoring her sister's indignation. "Sure thing. Ruby-wrangling has always been my specialty."

" _Yang_ I'm not a little kid--" 

By the time Weiss had finished up in the bathroom and reluctantly made her way back to the bedroom, Yang was leaning against the doorframe. A quick glance inside the room told Weiss all she needed to know--Ruby had managed to sprawl herself across the whole of the bed, her snores loud enough to wake the dead. 

Unamused, Weiss gave Yang a tired look. "You tried so hard to help her follow my one request, I see."

Yang smiled, her gaze flickering back to Ruby for a moment, fond but oddly subdued. "She kinda just... flopped there as soon as I turned my back."

"Of course." Weiss exhaled, deep and irritable. "You should get back to Blake. Don't worry about Ruby."

Yang made a small sound beneath her breath, her attention returning to Weiss. "I know. Always have trusted you with her, almost since the start. You usually do the right thing by her, and that's something I can count on."

That was... oddly and unexpectedly affectionate, even as far Yang was concerned. Weiss blinked, unsure of where that burst of affection had come from or what to do with it. Instead, she said nothing. 

"I'll be off then." Yang rolled her shoulders, nodding to Weiss just the once. "Try to get some shut-eye, okay? We've got a lot of work to do tomorrow."

Weiss arched an eyebrow at the pure hypocrisy. "Same goes for you and Blake, then. Try not to stay out too long."

Yang flashed her a grin over her shoulder, already heading for the door. "Don't worry, _mom_ , we'll be back before midnight."

Weiss listened to the door swing shut behind Yang, and it was only then that she dared look back toward where Ruby had sprawled over the entire width of the bed. Her mouth twisted, tight and unhappy. Just what was Weiss going to do with her? Worse, what was she going to do with _herself_? 

She managed to corral Ruby to her own side of the bed through a series of careful pushes, cautious pokes, and perhaps a few liberal glyphs here and there. It was only when Ruby continued to snore, more quietly now, that Weiss felt relaxed enough to crawl under the scratchy covers, leaning toward the bedside lamp Yang had left on for them and plunging them both into darkness. 

Her stomach churned, the spike of ever-present anxiety rearing up in the back of her mind unbidden. Without the distractions of the day, her nights were a far less friendly place, and lately...

Silent, Weiss closed her eyes, curled on her side with her back to Ruby, listening to the soft, steady sound of breathing beside her, letting it soothe her instead of ruminating on things that were not going to change. Slowly, reluctantly, Weiss' body began to grow heavy, her weariness catching up with her once more. 

She couldn't find the strength of will to move when Ruby edged closer, her forehead resting between Weiss' shoulder blades. It was easier to simply allow it, to enjoy it for once, however temporary such comforts were going to be. And they would certainly _be_ temporary, she knew, her father's every word sticking like thorns in the front of her mind. 

God, everything was such a mess. This, at least, Weiss would cherish while she still could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't mind me, I'm just casually getting caught up in the way Team RWBY relates to one another. I love my girls and miss them so much in canon. :(
> 
> #ReuniteTeamRWBY2k17
> 
> My apologies for the glacial pace, but this is a character fic as much as it is a mission/hunting fic.
> 
> Also thank you to everyone who commented last chapter, I really appreciated the feedback and I love you all. :D


	3. Contact Established

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby tries to settle her nerves with some late night weapons maintenence, and Team RWBY commences work on their new contract.

_Weiss' fingers tangled in the hair at the nape of Ruby's neck, a trembling twist just shy of painful as Ruby opened her mouth to taste her fluttering pulse. Weiss' skin was warm and soft, the bitter taste of spent Dust and sweat on Ruby's tongue enough to send her reeling. Even better was the ragged inhale every press of her mouth drew from Weiss, the touch of a cry colouring her sighs at the barest graze of teeth._

_Ruby hesitated half a beat, pulling back to relearn how to breathe, but Weiss' hand slipped from her hair. That gaze was sharp, vivid blue against an infinity of oversaturated white, her mouth curling in sweet satisfaction as she drew a hot line from the corner of Ruby's jaw with her fingers. Her lips lingered, just shy of Ruby's own, so close Ruby could taste the shiver of Weiss' breath on them. Heat raced quicksilver down the length of her spine, sparking static at the back of her skull, and Ruby kissed her, hot and hungry and breathless--_

Ruby inhaled with a full-body shudder as sleep chewed her up and spat her back out. She was blind in the dark, her brain muddled from the whiplash between the searing white of the dream and the dark, quiet bedroom she'd awoken in. 

_The dream,_ Ruby repeated silently, frantic as she scrambled to reclaim her bearings and resolve the source of the pleasant warmth pressed up against her chest and stomach and legs. She could have groaned. _Weiss._

At some point during her sleep, Ruby had plastered herself up hard against Weiss' back, she realised with another gut-wrenching lurch of panic. The scent of Weiss' perfume, of Dust, her skin and her shampoo--all of it normally so soothing--only served to ignite every single nerve ending in Ruby's body, setting fire to each inch of skin pressed against Weiss. 

When had Ruby managed to tangle them together like _this_? Vaguely, she remembered waking up cold at some earlier point, no longer warmed by the sweet buzz of alcohol in her veins, but now? That was really, _really_ not the case. The back of Ruby's neck felt damp with sweat no matter how chilly the room actually was, and gods she was so unbearably _hot_ she felt like she was actually going to die from it. 

Weiss was sleeping--for once. The steady, deep sound of her breathing, quiet in the darkness, hadn't faltered since Ruby had lurched awake, a mercy Ruby wasn't sure she deserved. Weiss was still curled on her side, so warm a contrast to the cool Mantle air, and so comfortable Ruby was entirely tempted to throw caution into the wind and just... melt against her for a while longer. 

Heat lanced through Ruby's stomach as she felt Weiss exhale in the dark, shattering any temptation she might have felt to linger. God, this was so totally _not good_ and she might as well kiss her friendship with Weiss goodbye. 

Just the idea of the word _kiss_ sent vivid images flashing through Ruby's head again, and she nearly choked. She slid away from Weiss, as gently as she could manage--her partner needed this rest so badly--but hasty nonetheless.

Ruby swung her legs over the side of the bed, running panicked, feverish fingers through her sweat-soaked bangs. 

She needed air, she decided, listening to the sound of Weiss' breathing in the dark, remembering too vividly the catch and sigh of them in her dreams. Ruby's fingers tightened in her hair, sharp enough to hurt, and she hissed beneath her breath. Forget air--Ruby needed to get a _grip._

Despite the heat still sizzling through her veins with every stray thought, Ruby fished around in the dark for her jacket, snagging it between her trembling fingers and pulling it on as she high-tailed it to the bathroom. 

It was only when the door clicked shut behind her that Ruby felt safe enough to relax. Breathing hard, she leaned over the sink as she hit the lights, her hands horrifyingly unsteady as she reached out to turn the faucet. While the water was freezing cold, Ruby cupped her palms beneath the flow, splashing it against her face and neck. 

She could still smell Weiss' perfume, lingering on her skin and pyjamas, and convulsively, she swallowed, staring at her flushed and dripping reflection in the mirror. 

_Don't mess up our friendship,_ Ruby repeated to herself, squeezing her eyes shut. _That was all I needed to do, and I can't even handle that!_

There was no other way to describe the actual trainwreck of the past day. She was such a dolt, just like Weiss always used to call her, getting drunk and flirting like she had! She felt absolutely ashamed of herself--Weiss and Yang had just been trying to get her home safely, and all she'd been able to think through the haze was how much she _wanted_ Weiss. 

What if Yang hadn't been there? Ruby wiped at the water dripping from her chin with the back of her hand, her heart pounding hard. If Yang hadn't been there to run diversion, Ruby was honestly afraid of what she might have blurted--or what she might have _done_. 

Miserable, Ruby tipped her head back with a low groan. She needed to stop kidding herself. Her feelings for Weiss hadn't just stuck around during their year apart--no, they'd gotten so, so much worse. 

She needed to find a way to settle herself down, before she went completely insane. 

If they'd been somewhere a little more familiar and a little less dangerous, Ruby would have been tempted to go for a run. She resisted that urge--she was desperate, but she wasn't _dumb_. Instead, as Ruby finally pushed her way from the bathroom, her gaze fell on Crescent Rose, the battered travel case propped up against lounge room wall, just where she'd left it that evening. 

Crescent Rose had always been Ruby's fallback, a reliable source of comfort despite all the hell they'd been through together. Tonight was no different, and even though her weapon hadn't seen use since she and Yang had arrived at Mistral, it was something she could focus on, something calming. 

Something she could do with her hands, to steady the persistent tremble in them. 

Switching on the kitchen lights before kneeling by the case, Ruby hit the catches, retrieving her toolkit and work gloves before taking her scythes dense weight in her free hand. Setting them all down on one of the chairs, she quickly cleared the kitchen table's surface of Blake's pile of books and a few of Yang's stray shotgun shells, spreading her work cloth over the top. The oil-stained, frayed linen would have had Weiss breaking out in a cold sweat had she seen it, and maybe it _was_ well past time to wash it, but...

With a soft exhale, Ruby hit the familiar combination of buttons, Crescent Rose unfolding to its full length. She smiled to herself as she watched the fluorescent light play over the sharp edges and flat planes, already she felt a little better. Careful and reverent, Ruby set the blade down on the cloth she'd laid over the table, leaning over with a screwdriver and deftly removing it from the haft. 

Some of the gears in the blade had started to wear down, Ruby noted with a frown. Those were going to need replacing, and she set about unscrewing one of the outside plates to take a closer look. A short time later, she held up one of the offending gears to the flickering kitchen light, rolling the gear between her gloved thumb and forefinger as she critically assessed the part's remaining integrity. 

Ruby sighed. That sort of wear was to be expected--she and Yang had pushed themselves hard over their year of travelling, and repair shops and resupply points had been pretty rare in the Anima wilds. 

But... that was just another thing that was going to eat into her already meagre funds, for all that she treated Crescent Rose with a care she didn't even grant herself. Humming beneath her breath, Ruby continued her work, cleaning and examining every component with painstaking attention until her heart rate had slowed, her breathing grew steady. 

Working on Crescent Rose had done a heck of a job recentering Ruby, so when she caught the bedroom door in the hallway open out the corner of her eye, she didn't jump. She looked up as she finished opening another compartment, her eyebrows raising when she caught the telltale flash of pale hair. 

_Weiss?_ Ruby had been certain she'd left her partner sleeping soundly the way she so obviously needed, but there she was, wandering into the kitchen light in just a nightshirt. 

"It's way too early for you to be up," Ruby said, her voice light as she looked back down to one of the delicate gears, adjusting the angle of it with a set of tiny pliers. She had to keep herself busy--that way, she couldn't let her gaze linger on Weiss, on the outline of her every curve and muscle beneath her shirt. 

Weiss had never really taken well to being told what to do, however, so Ruby wasn't surprised when she snapped back, "Likewise for you." 

Ruby hesitated, wetting her lips with the tip of her tongue. "Am I being too loud? I can stop in just a bit, if you want."

Even if it would drive her insane to leave a maintenance job half done, she'd do it for Weiss. 

"You're--" Weiss paused, covering a wide yawn with her hand as peered groggily at Crescent Rose's interior for a long few moments. "You're fine."

Ruby looked up then, her thoughts of heat and desire forgotten as she took in how _tired_ Weiss still looked. She wanted, more than anything, to ask if _Weiss_ was fine. No matter what she did, though, the words seemed to stick in her throat. 

_Why are you up? Why couldn't you sleep? What's on your mind, and where you been?_

But if Weiss had been willing to share any of that with Ruby or the rest of the team, she would have done so last night. "Classified", she'd claimed, but Ruby remembered that line coming from Winter every time they'd started asking difficult questions during the Salem Crisis.

As awful as it was to even consider it, as much as she'd tried to push the idea away and think of something else… a big part of Ruby was honestly afraid she'd missed her chance to know, that this was a _trust_ thing after all. 

Back during the immediate aftermath of Salem's defeat, Ruby had been… overwhelmed. She hadn't wanted the sudden spotlight, she hadn't wanted commendations or any of what Ironwood or Goodwitch were threatening with the best of intentions--everyone had been flooding her, trying to congratulate her for the definitive end to the Crisis. 

All Ruby had been able to see had been the blood on her hands, however necessary spilling it had been. All she'd been able to see was the lives lost in the fight, the horror of those final moments against Salem eating away at everything she'd thought true of herself. She'd just wanted time and space, to process her actions, to figure out what they meant for her. To _think._

She'd needed to escape the fallout. Without a warning or even a goodbye, just a hasty note to Weiss and Blake each, Ruby and Yang had been in the wind. The world would just need to sort itself out without them for a while. 

With the CCT being down for a good six months, even after Beacon was reclaimed at the end of the Crisis, contact with Weiss and Blake had initially been non-existent, and during those months, Ruby had been terrified their teammates were furious at the sudden abandonment. 

When communications had finally come back online and the floodgates had opened up on the hundreds of waiting messages on her scroll, she'd found that Blake had forgiven both Ruby and Yang in a moment. Weiss, though? Weiss hadn't so much as _mentioned_ the uncertain way Ruby had left things, and even now that sounded a warning twist of worry in Ruby's stomach. 

Ruby knew she'd had all the best reasons--she'd been traumatised. She hadn't been thinking clearly, and for the longest time, her thoughts were edged, sharp enough to leave her bleeding to consider. It had felt like the right choice at the time, but when the silence fell between her and Weiss so awkwardly now... Ruby couldn't help but wonder if it had been the right call after all. 

Maybe Weiss regretted coming along. Maybe Ruby was afraid she'd crossed too many boundaries last night, and maybe she was feeling the distance growing between them at a time when she wanted to be closer than ever before. Whatever it was, it felt _awful_ and Ruby frowned down at the pliers in her hand. 

She refused to let herself screw this up. 

"Hey, Weiss..." Ruby trailed off, looking up to watch Weiss settle on the couch. 

Weiss didn't respond, but those weary blue eyes were on Ruby, waiting. She didn't seem angry. Ruby swallowed past the sudden dryness in her throat, looking back down to the delicate parts arrayed on the cloth in front of her. 

"I'm sorry. I know things have been a little weird over the past few days." Ruby wet her lips, her voice catching in her throat just a little as she poured her heart into her words. "I'm so not good at this, but--I just wanted to let you know that I missed you! I get that it's been forever and that you've been really busy... But I'm glad we get to do this as a team again."

She heard the couch shift as Weiss readjusted her weight, and for what seemed like the longest time, there was nothing but silence as Ruby toyed with Crescent Rose's gears, her heart twisting in her chest. 

She'd almost given up on waiting for an answer when Weiss replied, her voice soft. 

"I am too."

Ruby looked up at her, and she couldn't help the smile on her lips. Weiss _was_ happy to be in Mantle with them--Ruby could read it in the small smile on her lips, the way it even reached her eyes. Weiss' eyes had always been her biggest tell, after all. 

Feeling far more cheerful, Ruby continued to work on Crescent Rose, losing herself in the detail for an indeterminate amount of time. When she finally looked up again, Weiss had dozed off on the couch, her legs curled against her, her head resting on her forearm. 

She still looked so tired--like she hadn't slept in the better part of a month. Maybe that was true. Ruby paused her work, wincing sympathetically as she watched the steady rise and fall of Weiss' chest as she slept. 

Hesitating just for a moment, Ruby peeled off her oil-stained work gloves and removed her jacket. Now that she wasn't focusing on the cold, she wasn't feeling it, so... She crept over, gently placing her jacket about Weiss' shoulders before nodding to herself. 

While Ruby wanted nothing more than to help her partner share the burden of whatever secrets she was keeping, it wasn't going to come easily. In the meantime, Weiss still needed Ruby to look out for her, even if she wasn't ready to talk about why. And when she finally was... well, Ruby just had to make it super obvious that she was there for her. 

Ruby sighed, allowing herself to watch her partner sleep for a long, wistful moment. She just hoped Weiss could trust her soon.

###

In the long months since Salem's fall, Weiss had managed to suppress her memories of the pure, logistical _nightmare_ it took to get Team RWBY up and moving about each morning. Between Ruby's scatterbrained forgetfulness, Blake's long showers, Yang's stubborn insistence on fixing everyone a proper breakfast and Weiss' own penchant for indulging a little too long on her grooming, it was a wonder they'd made it to a single early morning lecture at any point in their student careers.

Without the constant fear of Salem and her lieutenants, Weiss noted with disgust for each of them _and_ herself, they'd quickly unlearned many of their time-saving habits from the war. 

So, by the time Team RWBY was showered, fed and armed, it was getting close to noon and Ruby had begun to grumble threateningly about purchasing another of those damnable whistles, holding the apartment door open with a scowl as they filed out into the cool morning air. Given the appalling chaos Weiss had just played her token part in, she had to concede that perhaps such an investment would have its benefits. 

The walk across town was a brisk one, Blake leading the way as they headed for the hunter headquarters, its clocktower rising up above Mantle's winding, narrow streets like a beacon. Despite her obvious curiosity about Mantle, Ruby kept a lid on her semblance, instead choosing to linger by Weiss' side. Every so often, a particularly strong gust of wind would set her teeth to chattering. 

Ruby still hadn't found herself anything warmer than the light jacket Weiss had found tucked about her shoulders that morning. Despite the light fabric, it had been warm, smelling of Ruby's heady mix of roses, gunpowder and maintenance oil. Groggy, she'd held her silence as she'd watched Ruby finish up her careful check of Crescent Rose, letting her gaze dwell on the way Ruby's pyjama tank top had exposed the wiry strength of her arms. 

Ruby hadn't looked cold then, even if she did now. Weiss sighed. They would really need to do something about that over the coming days.

"You seem to be in a good mood," Ruby observed, her tone low and playful as she caught Weiss' next idle glance, holding it with her cheerful silver gaze. "Hype for the new mission?"

"I suppose," Weiss conceded with a small smile, her stomach warming as Ruby looked pleased at the honest, if grudging reaction. Genuineness had been a luxury she hadn't been allowed for the better part of a year, and while last night had certainly been a _trial,_ she supposed Yang's gut instinct had yet again been correct.

That knot of tension in her chest, the one that had paralysed so many of her interactions with the team over the past week, had slowly started to loosen. While it changed nothing of her circumstance, or the storm brewing ahead, it felt good to react honestly with them--with Ruby. 

Sighing softly, Weiss allowed herself to add, "It's been far too long."

Ruby's eyebrows rose then, her expression one of hesitant curiosity as she ventured, "Not much action with the Atlesian army, then?" 

Weiss snorted beneath her breath. Last night's not-lie had stuck in Ruby's brain despite the tequila shots, then. Weiss could play along with that--it was close enough to the truth for her purposes, without veering into a territory that invited dangerous sorts of questions. 

"A lot of frustrating paperwork," Weiss clarified after some thought, digging her hands in her pockets more deeply when the wind picked up around them.

Ruby made a face, tugging her red cloak a little more tightly around her shoulders. "Sounds gross."

Weiss huffed a quiet laugh, a hundred nights bent over her scroll and reams of paper with a mug of coffee, with only Whitley's venomous sarcasm or Winter's cool regard for company springing to mind. 

"You don't even know the half of it, I'm afraid."

Ruby flashed in front of her in a burst of petals, her hands clasped behind her as she walked backwards, matching Weiss' brisk pace with ease. Her smile was just a touch lilting as she asked, "Not worried you're gonna be rusty?"

"Are _you_ worried?" Weiss countered, but it was a fair question. Did Ruby worry she might be a liability for the team, or was it just light-hearted teasing? She exhaled, trying to remember the rule of thumb she'd settled on when it came to her over-enthusiastic partner. 

Choose the most charitable interpretation of a situation or statement--because Ruby quite frankly didn't have a vicious bone in her body. It had always been a sharp contrast to the rest of Weiss' life, and one she'd appreciated more and more as the years had passed. 

"Nope. You're always the best at what you do, Weiss." Ruby's cheeks flushed a little then, and she spun on her heel to face the front as she added with feeling, "You've never failed at a thing in your life!"

Weiss shook her head, her thoughts flickering back over the past year. Closed and claustrophobic rooms, fruitless pursuit of information and endless paper trails of contracts, accords and agreements. Half-remembered memos, email chains, financial statements--all of it vanishing, turning to smoke about her fingers as she was outplayed and out-maneuvered every time she thought she had him. 

"Depends on the opponent," she said softly, her mouth twisting bitterly. She hadn't meant it loud enough to be heard, but Ruby looked over her shoulder anyway, her grin a quicksilver flash of infectious cheer. 

"Well, Team RWBY can take whatever comes!" Ruby winked back at her, an imitation of Yang at her most incorrigible. "We're certified badasses, remember?"

Weiss rolled her eyes, trailing after the crimson whirl and whip of Ruby's cloak in the wind. She knew better than to argue the point, but that didn't mean she didn't wish, wistfully, that it really _was_ true. While Team RWBY couldn't be beat when it came to fighting Grimm, despots and terrorists, some battles weren't won with swords--even when that sword could also be a gun, as her partner was so fond of saying. 

Some battles, she'd found, couldn't be won at all.

###

Ruby took the steps up to the Mantle's hunter HQ three at a time, her semblance thrilling in her veins as she used it to dart up and ahead of the rest of the team. She'd tried to keep a rein on her excitement, she really had, but it was _finally_ time to get started and she was _so ready_ for a distraction from her love life.

Reaching the top of the steps, Ruby looked back over her shoulder, her heart swelling in her chest with barely-contained affection as she watched her team follow after her. Yang's toast from the night before flitted to the front of Ruby's mind, and she was completely right--it really _had_ been way too long since Team RWBY had been together. 

Yang and Blake and Weiss... They'd come all the way to Mantle for the contract Blake had found stashed in the very final pages of the Menagerie hunter listings. Yang looked cheerful as she joined Ruby at the top of the steps, punching her in the shoulder lightly with a laugh. Blake, following along behind Yang at a far more sedate pace, looked completely contented, and Weiss...

Even Weiss was smiling, and Ruby felt her own grow in immediate response. 

"All set?" Yang asked, rolling one of her shoulders with a low groan and casting a careful look over the rest of the team. Ruby knew Yang had never really gotten over the whole big sister urge to look after the lot of them. 

Weiss arched an eyebrow. To Ruby's eye, the tilt of her lips was challenging as she sniped back at Yang, "Do you even need to ask?"

Yang offered Weiss a shrug, her grin easy and sure. "Wouldn't want you getting a bit of performance anxiety, Weiss. Hasn't it been a long, _dry_ year of paperwork for you?"

Blake's sigh was deep and long-suffering as she swatted at Yang's shoulder, beating Ruby to the punch by a fraction of a second. Despite the way her cheeks had gone a little red, however, Weiss just rolled her eyes and left Yang's bait where it fell. 

"The name on the contract is Vanta Scherwiz," Blake said, ignoring the wounded look Yang was sending her way. 

"The chief hunter liaison in Mantle," Weiss added, looking toward the ornate, pockmarked wooden doors leading into the clocktower's main hall. Ruby frowned--the liaison? 

It was more information than Ruby had heard about the contract so far, and curious, she turned to Weiss. "Do you know her?"

Weiss' lips tightened, just for an instant. "Just _of_ her."

"Promising," Blake said, her gaze flickering toward the doors. 

Yang nodded, sighing as she cracked her knuckles and neck with restless energy. "Yeah, says a lot about her if _Weiss_ is scared shitless." 

At Ruby's side, Weiss bristled. "I never said I was scared--"

"Let's get in there, before these two decide to kill one another just to prove a point," Blake cut in, and Ruby nodded. 

_Vanta Scherwiz. If she's anything like Goodwitch, I don't think finding her is gonna be a problem._

The ornate clocktower doors were heavy as Ruby pushed her way through them, noting the complex steel reinforcements made to the hinges and frame as she went. The decorated wood visible from the outside was just for flavour, it seemed, because the last time Ruby had seen anti-Grimm defences like this, she'd been cooped up in one of Ironwood's remote research facilities.

Frowning, her shoulders shifting uneasily as she felt her team filter into the building behind her, Ruby turned her gaze to the rest of the hall. 

Ruby didn't have much of a frame of reference for how hunter headquarters were meant to be, honestly. There was Beacon, of course, but most of the contracts she and Yang had taken over the past year had been either freelancing or pure opportunism. 

Where Vale's headquarters at Beacon had been uncluttered and highly digitised, Mantle's was about as haphazard as the rest of the city suggested. Desks and computers and filing cabinets had been crammed into the hall until the entire place felt fit to bursting, dozens of hunters conversing with more liaisons than Ruby had ever seen in one place-- _ever_. 

It made a little sense, given how heavily Mantle seemed to rely on hunters, but Ruby hadn't been prepared for just how full-on the operation was meant to be. A whole city, under the sole protection of just one chief liaison when the Atlesian army withdrew its support...

"Damn," Ruby heard Yang murmur from just behind her, and she agreed whole-heartedly. 

The entire hall seemed to buzz with activity, with conversation, screens beeped warnings and the smell of Dust was so strong Ruby's nose burned. Casting another critical gaze over the long hall, Ruby spotted the huntress who had to be the one running the show. 

Nodding to the rest of the team, Ruby led the way. 

The woman was stationed at the very rear of the room, her back to several large monitors anchored to the wall, a digital overview of Mantle's city limits and a constant update from every border cascading down the screen. Those electrified fences the bus had passed on the way into the city flashed to Ruby's mind--so those were all monitored here? 

One of the sections of fences on the screen was flashing a warning, but the woman seemed to be taking no notice of that at all, instead chewing out the pair of shame-faced huntsmen cowering before her. 

_Oh, that... that definitely seems to be Mantle's Professor Goodwitch..._ Ruby's stomach twisted, her stride faltering just slightly as the woman's raised voice cracked like a whip, now even louder. 

"--and exactly which negligent fool among you was the first to decide to abandon his post?" As one of the huntsman cleared his throat and tried to present a feeble answer, Vanta held up a gauntleted hand, her electric blue gaze severe in the poor hall lighting. "Do not mistake my rhetorical fury for genuine curiosity. It matters little _which_ of you had the idea, only that all of you followed."

The huntsman looked like he was about to lose his breakfast as he tried, "Ma'am--"

"A Goliath had been spotted at the border, along the stretch of defences you and your team were assigned to watch as a part of your contract. Something you would have _known,_ had you seen fit to haul your head from your ass and check the reports." Vanta turned her back on them, her gaze returning to the digital overview of Mantle's city limits as though they weren't worth a further thought. "Get out of my sight, and don't expect to see a single lien from my city for the next year."

Drawing level with Ruby, her fingers laced behind her head, Yang gave a low whistle. "Ouch."

Vanta looked over her shoulder, her gaze pinning Yang so effectively Ruby practically felt her sister choke, felt her straighten up from her slouch. If Ruby hadn't been just as terrified of provoking this woman's lingering fury, she might have laughed. 

"And to what do I owe the pleasure?" Vanta asked, her voice low and controlled and not at all like she'd just finished flaying those huntsmen alive with just the sharp edge of her tongue. Her glance was fleeting on each of them, taking in Ruby's vivid red cloak, Blake's ears, Yang's arm--but her gaze sharpened momentarily on Weiss, and Ruby felt a shiver run down her spine.

Ruby glanced to Weiss, trying to read the significance of the look in her partner's stony expression. Weiss offered her nothing, her eyes still fixed on Vanta.

Running a nervous hand through her hair and feeling entirely defanged by the cold greeting and dismissive assessment, Ruby tried, "We... we're just..."

Warnings blared on the screen behind Vanta again, red lights reflecting on the side of her face. Ruby's gaze flickered toward the feedback--hadn't Vanta mentioned something about a Goliath to those huntsmen? Those things were trouble at the best of times, and a nightmare at the worst. 

Mountain Glenn flashed to the forefront of Ruby's mind. She'd spent a lot of time over the past two days marvelling at just how alive Mantle was compared to the wreckage just beyond Vale's city limits. That wasn't about to change, not if she could help it.

"What's going on with the border fence?" Ruby asked, her voice low and serious. "Do you need additional forces in that area?"

"No. I've already seen to the defences, however your concern is... appreciated." Vanta turned to face Ruby fully then. Her eyes were even bluer than Weiss', Ruby noted with a lurch of her stomach, and her chin was tilted just slightly as she asked, "You aren't from around here, are you?" 

_First Auret, now Vanta?_ Ruby thought, rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment. At her side, Ruby heard Blake suppress a sigh, nudging her sharply in the ribs with an elbow. 

A leader had to lead, Ruby reminded herself, and forcing a smile she didn't quite feel, she said, "Oh, right. We're here about the unknown Grimm contract your branch has offered."

"You'll need to be more specific than that." Vanta crossed her arms, leaning the small of her back against the console behind her, arching an elegant brow as she added, "Mantle isn't the most safe of places at the best of times."

"It's a contract for the head of a Grimm known for targeting hunters--even whole teams." Blake's eyes were narrowed, and Ruby shot her a look out the corner of her eye. Despite the neutrality of her expression, there was a thread of tension in her words that only grew sharper as she said, "You're very aware of this particular monster, despite what you claim."

"Perhaps I'd hoped I did not." Vanta lifted a hand, sweep wide to encompass the team arrayed before her. "Awful young, aren't you?"

 _Not young enough to avoid becoming a pivotal piece in Ozpin's war,_ Ruby thought, and her voice was quiet as she said aloud, "What does that have to do with anything?" 

Ever the moral support, Yang nodded at Ruby's words, her chin lifted in a stubborn challenge to Vanta's authority as she added, "Just means we've got a lot to prove."

"And a lot to lose." Vanta cast her eye over the team again, before exhaling, long and low. "Team RWBY never formally graduated any hunting academy, however its members were granted licenses to operate as a reward for their efforts during the Salem Crisis. I'm very aware who you are, girls."

Her bright gaze flickered over them again, sizing Ruby herself up, openly assessing and finding her wanting. Lingering just at the edge of Ruby's field of vision, Weiss' eyes had narrowed dangerously, her mouth flattening into a thin, angry line. 

Ruby had just enough time to feel a flash of concern before Weiss snapped, "Ruby has done more than enough to deserve your respect. Is there a reason for this pathetic charade, or do you often pull a power-trip on new huntresses in the area?"

Ruby froze. She'd expected Weiss' backhanded venom, that was normal, but the absolute vote of confidence? Ruby felt her cheeks begin to burn, her smile suddenly so intense her face hurt. Her ears seemed to be ringing, and still wondering if she'd misheard, she blinked rapidly. Would it be too much if she grabbed Weiss up in a hug, right here, right now? 

Vanta's laugh sliced through the warm buzz in her veins, and Ruby looked away from Weiss, her smile fading. 

"My name is Vanta," the woman offered, as if that made up for the hard time she'd been giving Team RWBY since they'd arrived. 

Weiss advanced a step, scowling and having absolutely none of it. "We know who _you_ are, just as you know us."

"Speak for yourself," Yang muttered, crossing her arms against her chest and her mouth set in an unhappy, flat line. 

"Vanta Scherwiz," Blake said, before Vanta could say anything further. Her tone was flat, nearly bored, for all that her cat ears had been laid back flat against her skull. "You assumed the position of Mantle's chief liaison during the Salem Crisis. Your team held Mantle when Atlas closed its borders. You still do."

"Not without the help of every hunter within these walls." Vanta nodded then, seeming pleased enough with the answer. She looked over Team RWBY again, and while the predatory gleam in her eye hadn't changed, her tone was mild as she said, "So. You all seem to have an appreciation of exactly what it is we do here. We don't govern, that's not our role, but we ensure the safety of every citizen who choses to make Mantle home."

"Which is why the border patrols are so important," Ruby said, her voice quiet. All of a sudden, she felt so incredibly tired. Worse, she felt _judged_ , but given how much was at stake, how much this Vanta Scherwiz had fought tooth and nail for... She didn't blame Vanta for being harsh in the slightest. "Those huntsmen really shouldn't have abandoned their post."

"Correct." Vanta's fingernails drummed a rapid tempo on the panel behind her then, and she hummed beneath her breath, considering. "You're here for the Stalker contract, you said?"

"Yes. Unless you've assigned it to somebody else, we'd really like to help out."

"Very well." Vanta's vivid blue eyes were distant as she drew her scroll from her pocket, tapping out a rapid message to some unknown contact reporting in. Once done, her voice was grave as she continued. "However, I will not consider this agreement binding upon your team until you have all had a chance to... review. I must impress upon you all--this contract is as dangerous as it is important."

Yang crossed her arms, her expression skeptical. "Then why so little info? 'Classified'?"

"This is no Atlesian outpost, Xiao Long, and we will not act as such." Vanta's lips twisted, just a moment of derision before her expression smoothed once again. Reaching into a desk drawer to her left, Vanta pulled out an old, dusty-looking file, rings of coffee stains marring the pale cardboard. It looked thin. "There is so little info, because that is all we know."

"How is that even possible?" Weiss asked, staring at the file as though certain the whole thing was a joke. "This city is bursting at the seams with hunters!"

"It's never been caught," Blake replied, her tone thoughtful as Ruby reached out to accept the file. Her gaze narrowed, razor sharp. "Or even identified. Then how do you even know it's the same thing?"

"When you look over the file, you can all tell _me._ " Vanta clasped her hands behind her back, turning her attention to the array of screens set into the wall behind her. Alerts had begun to stack up in the corner of the screen showing Mantle's electrified border again, and her lips pursed as she said, "I inherited this contract from my predecessor, and from what we know, it's been open for years. No team has had success. Quite the opposite, I feel compelled to add."

In the whole year Ruby had spent freelancing with Yang, never before had she been served with such a grim warning about the dangers of a contract. It had been different, when it was townsfolk telling her in hushed voices about the nest of creepers growing in one of the fields. They'd had no training, and they couldn't fight. 

This warning was coming from Mantle's chief hunter liaison, who crackled with aura just as brightly as any of Team RWBY. She knew how to fight, she knew how many teams had come before them, no matter how desperately she needed to look out for her city, she'd still felt compelled to warn them. 

The contract was dangerous. But then again, that was the world they lived in. That was the job they'd chosen. 

Finally, Ruby nodded, glancing around at the team before turning her attention back to Vanta. "We'll look over the file and let you know. Was there anything you can tell us that might help?"

"I'm glad you asked. There's been another victim." Vanta gestured to the file in Ruby's care, tapping her chin with a finger, her eyes thoughtful. "It's been recorded, of course, however given how recently this occurred, our huntsman is still in the morgue. We're awaiting the report."

"Okay. We're gonna split up. Blake and Yang, can you check over this file?" At Blake's nod and the confident flash of Yang's grin as they took the file from her, Ruby looked to Weiss with a smile. "Weiss, I guess we're off to the morgue."

Weiss' shoulders sagged, her lip curling in disgust as she groaned, "The _morgue_? Really?"

Ruby held up her hands, unable to stifle her laugh at the reaction. Weiss might have been able to surprise her with the vote of support, at least some things were still completely predictable. "Hey, you were the one whining about paperwork earlier! We'll take a look at the huntsman, and then get a copy of the report as soon as it's done. I thought you'd be totally impressed with how efficient an idea that is!"

Weiss scowled across at Ruby, but given the way the corner of her lips kept threatening to quirk in a smile, her heart absolutely wasn't in it. 

"As you will." Vanta looked back to the screens, tapping out another series of sequences on the feed. "But allow me to assure you how very serious I am--do not consider your involvement in the case to be binding. I'll await your decision, whatever it may be."

Ruby's smile faded, but Weiss--that telltale spark of anger had ignited in her eyes again. Ruby had always known them to be honest, even when Weiss had been lying through her teeth with the ease of a used car saleswoman, and right now? They practically _crackled_. 

"I'm sure we can handle whatever Grimm it is," Weiss told them, heat prickling in her every word. Ruby watched Vanta's gaze flicker to Weiss again, heavy and telling. 

_What's gotten into Weiss? What does Vanta know?_ Ruby asked herself, frowning as she watched Vanta move back toward the desk drawer she'd pulled the Stalker file from. 

Reaching inside a scuffed and dusty old box, she withdrew four scroll chips, silver against the black leather of her gloved palm. 

"Since you're here and so very eager to help, we could use the assistance." Vanta tossed each of them one of the chips, her smile flashing sharp once again. "I'll send you information and updates on any perimeter breaches that may happen, if this tracker shows me you are in the area. Respond, and I'll ensure you receive adequate payment for your efforts."

Ruby shared a smile with Yang, feeling the knot of tension in her chest begin to loosen. That was more like it! Blake looked comfortable enough with the arrangement, but Weiss... Weiss still watched Vanta the way Ruby might have eyed a nest of taijitu.

"Weiss?" Ruby tried, pitching her voice low, clasping Weiss' shoulder gently to draw her back and away from whatever was bothering her about Vanta. They could discuss it, but only once they left HQ. As Weiss looked back to her, relenting, Ruby offered her a smile. "Let's go--the sooner we get to the morgue, the sooner we get the report. Right?"

After a long moment, Weiss exhaled, the tense set to her jaw easing. "Right."

Ruby nodded to her, intent on leading them away from the clocktower HQ to talk about exactly what had happened with Vanta, when the woman in question cleared her throat. 

"Schnee. Before you leave, one last thing." 

Weiss' muscles went rigid beneath Ruby's grasp, and she glared over Ruby's shoulder toward where Vanta still lingered before the surveillance screens. Worried, Ruby tracked her gaze back, her stomach clenching--she'd seen alpha beowolves study their prey with far more kindness than the way Vanta was watching Weiss. 

That was why her next words were a complete surprise, as she finally said, "My apologies."

"For what, _exactly_?" 

Already moving to commandeer a spare desk off the side, Blake and Yang were staring at Weiss and Vanta, and honestly? Ruby couldn't blame them. It was unlike Weiss to make a scene like this--what was going on?

Vanta smiled. "Your mother and I were in a year together at Atlas before her... accident. She, too, was very good at what she did. Perhaps too good, in the end. It's a tragedy she couldn't continue what she loved."

"A tragedy," Weiss repeated, and Ruby watched her hands curl into fists. For a moment, she thought she could smell the ozone of a summoning glyph, but Weiss inhaled, sharp and harsh. "I'll be sure to let her know that, if I ever see her emerge from the bottom of her wine glass."

Ruby's eyes went wide, and her heart in her throat, she watched Weiss stalk away. She could count on one hand the amount of times Weiss had talked about her mother, so _this_ was just--just--

She honestly didn't even know _how_ to describe what she just witnessed, and the only person who could begin to tell her what was going on hadn't been very inclined to share her thoughts lately. 

Still reeling from Weiss' uncharacteristic outburst, Ruby darted after her partner as she threw the clocktower's reinforced doors open and stalked into the daylight. Having grown so used to the clocktower's dim interior, Ruby's eyes smarted from the brightness of the light, but she didn't hesitate for even a moment as Weiss marched down the weathered stone steps. 

"Weiss?"

Weiss ignored her, setting off down a narrow, winding street. While neither of them had a clue where the morgue actually was in relation to the clocktower, Ruby was pretty sure that just picking a direction and walking wasn't going to cut it. 

"Weiss, come on, slow down--" Ruby cut herself off, and it was only with a touch of semblance that she finally caught up to her partner. 

Weiss' expression was frozen as Ruby darted in front of her, a careful mask of ice and iron will--all but her eyes. Ruby's heart gave a bitter twist as Weiss tried to push past her, but refusing to let the matter drop, she caught Weiss' shoulder in her hand, her grasp firm but gentle. 

" _Weiss._ " 

Whatever she felt for Weiss, they were still friends. And Ruby was still the leader of this whole huntress outfit, no matter how much of a pretender she could feel like at times. Weiss needed her to step up--and sometimes, that meant confronting things Weiss didn't want to talk about. 

Weiss' gaze flickered down to the hand at her shoulder, cold and imperious. "You wouldn't understand, Ruby."

That _hurt_ , and Ruby couldn't quite keep the heat from her own voice as she snapped back, "Why don't you try me?" 

Weiss jerked away, slipping from Ruby's grasp like an eel and continuing up the broken sidewalk. "Why don't you use that thick head of yours and think about it, then?"

 _She's not angry with me,_ Ruby told herself, biting down hard on her lip as she tried not to recoil at the venom in Weiss' tone. _She's angry with Vanta, and I need to know why so it doesn't get worse._

And that was the thing with Weiss--it would grow more and more toxic with every hour that passed, until finally...

Ruby exhaled, rubbing the back of her neck as she tried, "It... just sounded like she was asking after your mother. I'm sorry--I don't exactly have the best frame of reference when it comes to that kind of thing."

With Summer dead and gone for so many years, _yes_ , maybe there was a subtle context to such a remark that Ruby didn't understand. There was a lot about so many things she didn't get, Weiss being chief among them lately. That didn't mean it wasn't worth trying anyway. 

Ahead of her, Weiss began to slow, the tense, angry set to her shoulders faltering at Ruby's admission. 

"Ruby, you don't--" Weiss cut off, and when Ruby closed the distance between them, she looked back. Her expression was pained. "Sorry."

"I know." Ruby reached out, setting a hand on her shoulder and pulling Weiss into her side for a moment as her partner sorted through her thoughts. 

She could wait--at least the street Weiss had chosen to stalk down in a blind rage was quiet. 

"Ruby, Vanta wasn't trying to be _nice._ She was trying to goad me, throw me off my game by saying one thing and meaning something else entirely. Mind-games, plain and simple." Weiss laughed then, the sound of it bleak and miserable. "I suppose I've just had enough to that sort of thing to last me a lifetime."

"Why would she do that?" Not expecting an answer, Ruby looked back toward the clocktower, her lips flattening. She supposed the 'why' of it didn't really matter--she'd heard more than enough about Jacques Schnee to explain all that. She'd never met the man, which was lucky for him. If Vanta was going to pull that same Atlesian stuff on Weiss as Jacques did, then... 

Ruby exhaled, hot and angry. "She has no right to do that to you!"

Weiss stared at her, startled in a way that made Ruby's chest ache all over again, before she gave one of those half-hearted smiles. "No. She has no right. And neither has anyone else, for that matter."

"Uh..." Ruby's eyebrows rose, unsure of what to do with that cryptic answer, but Weiss still needed comfort. She'd promised herself she'd be there for Weiss, so that was what she was going to do. "Well, if she does it again, _I'll_ have something to say about it!"

Weiss shot her a look, reluctant but still warm. "Your dedication to defending my honour from petty mindgames is truly breathtaking, but far from necessary." 

"You'd just rather storm out of a building in a rage?"

"I'm not in a _rage."_ Weiss looked away, uncomfortable. "I'm just..."

Unsure of where Weiss was going with that, Ruby hesitated, waiting. As the silence grew longer and Weiss' cheeks began to colour, Ruby realised her too-clever partner hadn't actually thought of anything to follow that statement up with. 

She flashed Weiss a grin, and she couldn't quite keep her giggle from her voice as she said, "Oh, was I supposed to argue the point for you?"

"Don't be daft, Ruby." Weiss' cheeks were still flushed hot, and she swatted Ruby, trying to pull away from the arm still tight about her shoulders. 

Laughing, Ruby allowed it, trying not to be so aware of the flex and pull of Weiss' shoulders beneath her arm. She tried not to remember her dreams of just pulling Weiss in for a kiss, of burning all that doubt and tiredness away with her mouth and every romantic cliche in the book. 

But Weiss didn't need all that--she needed Ruby the leader. Ruby the _friend_. And after her blunt show of support against Vanta, Ruby felt absolutely compelled to make it clear it was mutual. 

"Well, for what it's worth, I think you're right to be mad, if that's what she's doing. And I think she was, don't get me wrong!" Ruby ran her fingers through her hair then, suddenly nervous. God, what if she fudged this up? Weiss would _never_ trust her, then. "I mean, I don't care if she's our boss for this. You're the one who matters to me, and I've got your back. Okay?"

As Weiss flushed an even darker scarlet, offering Ruby one of those rare and beautiful smiles that she'd come to cherish... Maybe, for once, Ruby had said the right thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so humbled by everyone's response to this so far. Thank you for all your lovely comments and feedback and support, it really means a lot to me and it goes a really long way to keeping me at this mess of feels and angst. :D
> 
> The next chapter will be pretty case-heavy and long, so I expect the next chapter to post in around a week and a half to two weeks?
> 
> Oh, and before I forget! Vanta Scherwiz is named for both the vantablack art feud which makes me laugh every single time, and Scherwiz is a reference to Faris Scherwiz from Final Fantasy V because I'm nothing if not a huge FF nerd.


	4. Post-Mortem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blake and Yang have their first disagreement, while Weiss and Ruby attend the morgue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for how late this is! Lots of casefile stuff in this chapter, but also plenty of interpersonal and personal dynamic going on!
> 
> EDIT: A _HA_ I FINALLY THOUGHT OF A CLEVER NAME FOR THIS CHAPTER don't mind me.

For all that Blake had harboured her suspicions--pieced them together like a jigsaw from murmurs and whispers during a year of quiet negotiation and brokering peace--the fury and brimstone of Weiss' sudden departure still managed to catch her off-guard. 

With the benefit of hindsight, it really shouldn't have. Even the most casual observer would have noticed the Atlesian power games Vanta had been engaged in, caught the concealed venom in her words as she drew a harsh link between Weiss and a mother largely absent from the international spotlight. While Blake could read those games with ease, could counterplay with the very best of them… even the vaguest _smell_ of manipulation turned her stomach, made her shy away.

Given Weiss' reaction, Blake couldn't help but wonder--should she have intervened regardless? Blake stared down, beyond the casefile report in her hands, turning the concept around in her mind with restless intensity. 

_No,_ she decided after a long moment. _If Weiss had wanted backup, she would have left no room for doubt._

It was an approach Blake could find herself agreeing with, perhaps even too readily. She and Weiss were alike in too many ways, fiercely independent and protective of their agency--for all that Blake had eventually learned the value of allowing help. 

Even now, even years later, the parallels that continued to surface between them could be incredibly striking. 

Satisfied with whatever power game she'd been attempting, Vanta hadn't spared either Blake or Yang a further flicker of attention, and they'd been free to continue their review of the file undisturbed. There had only been one problem with that--Weiss' vehement departure had certainly drawn the gaze of every _other_ pair of eyes in the hall. Liaisons, hunters, civilians--the whole of it an almost physical, suffocating weight on Blake's chest. 

Unwanted attention still had a way of making Blake's skin crawl, and without a moment's hesitation, she'd absconded with the file to find somewhere quieter. 

The desk she and Yang eventually settled on had been abandoned by Vanta's people for the most part, shoved to the very side of the hall and sheltered in a small alcove. It was cramped and tiny, the wooden surface carved with Mistralian runes, names, even numbers--the product of several dozen bored minds over the years--but suited their purpose well enough. 

The chairs themselves were old and uncomfortable, the painted metal flaking to show the growing rust beneath, and the vinyl padding on the back splitting and perished. The frame dug into Blake's ribs and spine, while the joints had practically screeched in protest when Yang had tipped her chair back. 

Even now, her partner was balanced precariously on the back legs, heedless of the chair's rapidly declining integrity, her boots propped up on the desk while she leafed through the section of the file she'd taken. 

That confidence was truly something inspiring. No matter how many sidelong stares Yang drew to herself, what with that obnoxious squeaky chair and off-tune humming, she barely batted an eyelid. Blake shot Yang a look, just as appreciative as she was exasperated, seeing through the ploy with ease. 

After all, who bothered with the quiet shadow, when the roaring flame of a wildfire consumed all attention in the room? 

Exhaling softly, her lips curling up in a smile, Blake looked back down at her half of the Stalker file. An odd name, certainly, with no associated Grimm phylum to throw back to. More than likely, the moniker was coined by a frustrated investigator with little else to work with. 

She skimmed over crime scene reports--names, numbers, locations of where attacks had gone down and where bodies had appeared afterwards. The reports were low on detail and of poor legibility, even for Blake's keen vision, and for the first dozen bodies, she was convinced the detectives had been phoning the job in. 

On a certain level, Blake could understand. Mantle was a dangerous place, just as everyone said, and she was no stranger to bone-deep exhaustion, hopelessness and cynicism, when it seemed nothing you did made a difference.

That said, even just a glance at the reports spoke of vast dysfunction. Evidence hadn't been logged, scene details were omitted between copies of reports, and after a long moment, Blake had to conclude that one hadn't been completed at all when it ended in the middle of a witness statement. 

Shoddy administrative work, though as the reports had rolled on toward recent times, Blake could identify a marked improvement. Her gaze flickered up to the date--Vanta had taken command at around this time, and sure enough, her signature began to accompany the detective's in bold, crisp lines. 

_So we're up against poor documentation just as much as a bloodthirsty Grimm. A comforting thought._ Blake exhaled then, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. She wished it wasn't so unsurprising. 

As she continued to scan the list of names--confirmed dead, the teams torn apart or even missing entirely--Yang heaved a sigh, tossing a set of gory crime scene photos down onto the desk surface. Blake tracked the slide of them with a glance, stopping them with just a finger before they could topple over the edge to the floor, before looking to Yang in askance. 

"Something's on your mind," Blake observed, a mild substitute for a question. Her gaze lowered, watching the way Yang's fingers drummed on the desk's graffiti-scarred surface, all rapid, barely-contained energy. 

Blake frowned. The last time Yang had been able to vent some of that excess energy had been over a week and a half ago. A pack of beowolves, Blake recalled from the endearing flood of chatter when the team had finally reunited outside Haven. Yang and Ruby had been delayed a few days in their arrival when they'd made a sharp detour to deal with the Grimm, neither of them willing to leave a village to fend for themselves.

By now, Yang had to be close to bursting at the seams with energy. Lovemaking was one outlet--and Blake was very certain Yang had been both satisfied and spent--but this sort of energy required a far different approach. 

She suppressed a small, fond smile for her partner. Perhaps it was just as well Vanta had allowed them to assist with border security. The collateral damage bill resulting from Yang's boredom might otherwise become a little much. 

"Just thinking, I guess. Last night, Ruby mentioned Weiss was acting a little weird, and..." Yang hesitated, and Blake's smile faded as Yang's expression took on a quieter, pensive cast. She rolled a shoulder, looking back toward where Weiss had made her exit. "I didn't exactly put all that much stock in it at the time, you know?"

Blake hummed beneath her breath, thoughtful, dropping her gaze to scan the next page. A crime scene report from a few months ago. Barebones, of course. Sighing, she prompted, "But?"

Yang's nervous finger-drumming faltered for a long, telling moment. "Well, you saw what went down just before. I think she was half a breath from summoning a nevermore in here to eat our new employer." It started back up again, and unbidden, Blake's eyes tracked the rapid tempo. "Plus that stuff with her mom? Seriously not like her."

 _I see._ Blake could have kicked herself. Of course, Yang would have questions. That was only natural, given what they'd just witnessed, and Yang had always been far too sensitive to whatever emotional turbulence was plaguing the team on a given week. 

The only surprising part was that _Ruby_ had noticed something was up before Yang could. 

Slowly, Blake set the report down on the scarred wooden desk, thinking very, very carefully. 

"She's just a little frustrated," Blake finally said, meeting Yang's questioning look with a shrug. "One outburst is hardly something to be calling for an intervention over."

"That's a super harsh reading of friendly concern, I'm just putting that out there." Yang frowned at her, rocking back on her chair so far Blake was certain she'd end up toppling to the floor. "I don't know, I just--Ruby's right. She's definitely hiding something, and if it's big enough that she's not comfortable talking about it with us... just how bad _is_ it?"

"I'm sure it's nothing that will impact the team directly," Blake replied, her tone quiet and even. If she was understanding the political current correctly, the fallout would be on Weiss and the rest of her family alone. "You need to trust her, Yang."

Yang's chair squeaked, deliberate and dangerous, before she rocked forward, the front legs finally hitting the ground with a thud. "Even though she doesn't want to trust us?"

Blake sighed. "I really doubt she's withholding information for the pure joy of watching us wonder." 

"I don't know, she can be awfully spiteful when she has a mind to be..." Yang trailed off, flashing a smile that faded far too quickly when Blake didn't return it. Crossing her arms against her chest, she ventured, "...what do you think it is?"

A prickle of irritation ran down Blake's spine. "Do you really think us gossiping about it behind her back is going to engender any trust from her?" 

As far as Blake was concerned, Weiss was entitled to a degree of privacy--and _empathy._ She was no stranger to carrying the weight of a very corrupt organisation upon her shoulders. Her past year had been dedicated to helping the White Fang make amends, to forging new relationships beyond all the pain and bloodshed. 

That blood stained her own hands, and while it would impossible to clean her hands of it... it was worth the attempt regardless. Just like Blake, Weiss deserved the chance to work through her problems, on her _own_ terms. She'd long ago earned that degree of trust and loyalty.

Yang was squinting at her, and belatedly, Blake realised she'd held her silence far too long. 

"You know what's up, don't you?"

Blake stilled at the thread of dawning realisation in Yang's voice, and reflexively, her cat ears lay back against her scalp. "She hasn't confided in me, no."

"But you still have suspicions." Yang leaned forward in her chair, her chin propped in the gloved palm of her hand. "So, what are they? Maybe we can help her, you know?" 

"Yang--" Blake cut off, trying to figure out a diplomatic way of putting the matter. "I know you have the best intentions, but this is Weiss' right. _Alone._ She's the one who gets to decide what we know and _when._ " 

"What if it starts negatively impacting the team? What then?" Yang exhaled, long and low, her expression troubled. "That reasoning flies out the window the moment it affects the rest of us."

 _She means well, and she's speaking from her own experiences,_ Blake told herself again, but it was difficult to ignore the sour twist in her stomach. _She just wants to help._

Yes, communication was all well and good, Blake could appreciate that--but only when it was safe to do so. And when it came to dealing with Jacques Schnee and his army of corporate sycophants, it would be foolish in the extreme to take such a thing for granted. 

If Weiss wasn't talking, then it was for a very good reason. 

"It's not our call to make." Blake picked her paper back up, her lips pressed in a hard, thin line. Perhaps she was taking too harsh a line, but taking the choice from Weiss sat poorly with her. 

"Blake, c'mon, I didn't mean--"

"I'm not going to speculate, and neither should you."

Yang fell silent, looking back down to the stack of paper she'd abandoned on the desk, her expression stubborn and unruly. This would not be the last they spoke on the topic. Blake knew her partner far too well to make such a disastrous assumption. 

Her stomach churned, and the nigh-illegible scrawl of the report in her hands seemed to make even less sense than all the rest. She was being an idiot, but while some disagreements were expected, this was the first one they'd had since they'd started dating. Blake had known their honeymoon period wouldn't last forever, for all that it had felt like it would, but now...

Across the desk, Yang sighed, taking up the photos Blake had rescued from the fall just minutes earlier. Blake could read it in her expression--she wanted nothing more than to discuss the matter further, but out of deference and respect for the warning thread in Blake's tone, she held her tongue. 

While Yang might have a few regrets the way she'd approached the matter this time, she could be absolutely unrelenting when she believed herself in the right and the well-being of the team was at stake. 

Blake just couldn't agree that her approach was the right one. Not this time.

###

While Ruby had taken one of the tiny, worn-out chairs in the hallway of the coroner's office, Weiss frankly couldn't stand the _idea_ of sitting down, her nerves still ragged and frayed. Instead, she paced the length of the hall, again and again, restless as she continued to stew over the meeting with Vanta.

She was such a fool. Vanta Scherwiz was someone Weiss had mentally prepared herself for, back when she'd agreed to the Mantle contract, yet when the time came to test her theories, there was no doubt in her mind she'd failed spectacularly. 

_Am I truly so used to holding all the cards? One overt hint of knowledge and the threat of discovery, and I flew off the handle entirely._ Weiss exhaled, turning sharply on her heel as she continued to pace. _Winter would be absolutely ashamed of me, and father..._

Anger frothed in the pit of Weiss' stomach--not just with Vanta, but with herself. Had this past year run her so ragged? 

As Mantle's chief liaison, Weiss had expected Vanta to have an acute awareness of the current Solitas political situation, and like any half-decent Atlesian scion, she'd have eyes and ears at every level of society. Her knowledge, idle threats of exposure aside, were not the problem. 

Just as Vanta would be procuring information from others, she'd be providing it to so many more. Exactly _whose_ payroll was Vanta on? Did she answer to Weiss' father? Was that how she knew? Weiss considered the idea, her jaw tightening so hard it ached, before she discarded the notion just as quickly. 

It was unlikely. Vanta hated the Schnee name as much as she loathed Atlas itself--that much had been obvious from the faux apology she'd made regarding Willow Schnee.

The furious embers in Weiss' stomach flared as she recalled the parallel Vanta had painted between Weiss and her mother. Oh, her mother had been brilliant, Weiss had been told by _so many_ of her family's sycophants. It was such a shame a simple mistake in the field could have ended her career so decisively!

When Weiss had been a child, she'd bought into the stories she'd been told with a disgusting naivety--something that felt far too much like a damning trend, these days. Proper consideration of the facts, years later, had suggested a far different scenario. She'd learned that her mother had made quite a habit of drinking heavily with her team before hunts, the job nothing more than a cheap thrill. 

Yes, Weiss could concede she'd been brilliant with the family semblance, but she'd never taken the risks seriously and she'd paid the price. 

When all was said and done, her mother had retreated from not only hunting, but her responsibilities to the company, instead electing to continue drinking herself senseless from dawn until dusk. She'd left the company in _Jacques'_ hands, abandoned her duties, her _children_ , and buried her head in the sand. 

That was something Weiss would never forgive. 

So Vanta's attempts to draw sharp lines between Weiss and her fool of a mother had been particularly galling. Brilliance, decaying slowly to knowing negligence, all of it snatched away by complacency--or in Weiss' case, culpability for actions she'd known about, corruption she'd accepted for _years_ but hadn't spoken a single meaningful word against. 

She'd buried her head in the sand, just as badly as her mother had. That was bad enough. Far, far worse had been the brazen way Vanta had dangled the mere suggestion of that knowledge in front of Weiss' team. In front of her _friends_. 

Weiss had been furious at the seed of truth between the lies, and in the end she'd been desperate to end the conversation. So, she'd flung her derision with her mother's reality in Vanta's face, caring little for the cloak and dagger nature of Atlesian power games, her bluntness just as much a means to an end as any subtle barb.

But then, she'd lost perspective. She'd lashed out at Ruby. Ruby, who only ever wanted to help--who was a far better person than Weiss could ever hope to be. 

The wounded look in her partner's eyes had been like ice water to Weiss' anger. Her father's actions had ghosted to the front of her mind in that moment, and she'd practically recoiled from herself. 

_Which would you rather be like?_ Weiss remembered asking of herself, of Winter and Whitley, the thought bringing a bitter taste to her tongue. _A wrathful, corporate sociopath, or a miserable, negligent fool?_

The old saying went that the apple never fell far from the tree, and she could _see_ that judgement--even here and now, in this run-down joke of a coroner's office--reflected in Vanta's eyes. Ruby wasn't like that, had never _been_ like that, and what did Weiss repay her with? Venom and hate? 

"Weiss," Ruby said, her voice pitched low, grounding and gentle. 

Weiss jolted, catching a summoning glyph flickering into existence out of the corner of her eye. It faded as she took a deep breath, and god, she was already losing it, wasn't she? 

Unable to formulate an appropriate response, Weiss looked at Ruby for a long moment, before resuming her pacing once more. This time, she could feel Ruby's gaze tracking her every movement, and frustrated, she had to wonder how her overly-energetic partner could be so _calm_. 

As she reached the end of the hallway again, she heard Ruby shift, the sound of the worn-out vinyl padding creaking beneath her weight. 

"Weiss, you should really sit down."

Weiss' gaze snapped back to Ruby, and she couldn't keep her irritation from her voice as she shot back, "For what purpose?" 

She was _brimming_ with energy that could go nowhere. All she wanted to do was go back to the clocktower, interrogate Vanta, find out exactly what she knew and who she reported to. Instead, she was stuck here, in a _morgue_ , waiting on a moron to find time in his empty schedule to meet with them. 

Ruby smile became forced as she watched Weiss continue to pace, and she gritted through it, "You're scaring the receptionist."

Weiss scowled at her, unamused, before following Ruby's meaningful glance over her shoulder, to where the young man was sitting behind the counter. He was staring at her, eyes wide and face pale, and with a jolt, Weiss could concede that Ruby had a point. 

Perhaps she _was_ being somewhat... aggressive. Reluctantly, she took the hint, crossing the room to take the the seat at Ruby's side with a sigh. 

"There. Satisfied?" 

Ruby smiled across at her, the expression becoming more genuine as her silver eyes sparkled with amusement. "Yes, but I can tell you're still seething about playing nice and it's funny."

"I wouldn't need to be seething _or_ 'playing nice' if the coroner would just hurry up and do his job." Weiss snorted beneath her breath, entirely too willing to take out her frustration with Vanta on the man. "I suppose we should be lucky Mantle has a coroner at all, and not just a bunch of bored hunters cutting open cadavers for petty amusement."

"I'm really glad he's not here to listen you say that," Ruby replied, and she gave one of Weiss' thighs a playful nudge with her own knee. 

Weiss arched an eyebrow at Ruby, refusing to be mollified by such a simple action, however much she enjoyed the warmth of Ruby's delight. "You think I wouldn't give him a piece of my mind?"

Ruby glanced over Weiss' shoulder, her smile widening to something outright wolfish. "Oh, I guess we can find out!" 

Weiss stiffened, and she shot a look back over her shoulder, to where a man in a white labcoat had emerged from the door at the very end of the hallway. He didn't look impressed, Weiss noted with an internal groan, and doubtless her impish partner had watched her bumble face-first into that awful faux pas. 

Her expression far too innocent, Ruby whipped by Weiss in a blur of warmth and rose petals as she greeted the coroner, offering her hand with a duck of her head. She really could be endearingly, goofily charming when she put her mind to it--Weiss knew that better than most.

"I'm Ruby," her partner was telling the man, as Weiss joined them at a far more sedate pace. 

At Weiss' silence, Ruby shot her a look, jerking her head toward the coroner. _Play nice_ , she mouthed, and Weiss could have rolled her eyes. The damage was done, and her opinion on the chaotic ship this man ran was hardly going to change. 

"Weiss," she said with a shrug, her tone obedient and dry. 

The coroner--Doctor Cyan, she recalled from earlier--shot her a look she could read easily. Equal parts worry and resentment, just like every other citizen of Solitas with half a brain. 

"Now, it isn't normal that we'd let huntresses in before a full examination was done," he said, turning his attention back to Ruby, the far less threatening target of the two of them. "But I owe Scherwiz enough of a debt that I'm willing to help you both out."

"Wonderful," Weiss said, unable to keep the dislike from her voice at the mere mention of the woman's name. 

"We're both super glad you're willing to bend the rules," Ruby told Doctor Cyan, her tone light and cheery as he led them through to the examination room, despite the way those silver eyes narrowed in Weiss' direction. "Even if one of us can't remember our manners enough to show it."

Weiss scowled at Ruby's last remark, crossing her arms against her chest as she trailed after the two. The air inside the examination room was refrigerated, the cold seeping quickly through her coat and gloves, and she felt herself shiver. She cast a critical eye over Ruby's light jacket and thin shirt, lingering a fraction of a second too long on the sheer thigh-highs she wore beneath her combat skirt. 

Unbidden, Weiss' mind was consumed by the memory of Ruby stumbling into her the night before, the warm flex and shift of strength beneath her hands sending heat rising through her chest. 

Swallowing past the sudden dryness in her throat, Weiss looked instead to the bench of tools at the side of the examination room--saws, pliers, scalpels and all manners of other ghastly implements. A shiver ran down the length of her spine, no longer from the cold alone, a leaden feeling settling in the pit of her stomach. 

Ruby lingered by Cyan's side as he hit the catches on one of the refrigerated storage compartments, helping him unload the plastic-wrapped remains onto a waiting gurney, and then onto the slab in the centre of the room. Wary, Weiss approached the bench.

Despite the way the huntsman's body was still concealed by opaque white plastic, her stomach clenched. There was not exactly a whole lot _left_ of the body to examine, it seemed. 

Cyan handed Ruby a tablet, a digitised version of a report pulled up on its screen. 

"Jett Lawson, hunstman, 28. Born in Vale, educated at Beacon. Graduated shortly before the Salem Crisis, alongside teammates Vermillia Stratworth, Bayton Yaaj and Oliver Raines." Doctor Cyan's voice was neutral, a simple, impersonal recitation of fact. "Lawson and his team were in Mantle on a Dust supply escort mission. Rumour has it, the SDC has been hit with theft of their goods over a dozen times this past month alone."

Ruby's gaze flickered across to Weiss, but wisely said nothing Weiss would feel required to deny. Of course, she knew the thefts Doctor Cyan was referring to, for all that she shouldn't--and how _those_ were just a part of a wider picture of rapidly-growing public contempt with the Schnee name. 

After all, her father's questionable business practices had finally started outpacing his crack team of public relations specialists, now that he was no longer the darling of the Atlesian ruling council. 

And those? Weiss' jaw clenched, weariness and frustration rising up in her chest. Those were just the tip of the iceberg. 

Doctor Cyan heaved a sigh at her frosty silence, and continued. "From all appearances, Lawson and his team were actually involved in many of the more recent Dust thefts. An inside job, if you will."

"But only Lawson is here," Ruby said, looking down to the body, still hidden beneath the plastic. "So where's the rest of his team?" 

"That is the question, isn't it?" Cyan replied, adjusting his spectacles with a finger. "Lawson was found in the abandoned warehouse he and his team had been squatting in, in exactly this condition. It's worth noting that he was left in the company of hundreds of thousands of lien worth of Dust, and no sign of any of it taken. His teammates were not found at the scene, and have not been sighted since."

"They're just... gone?" Weiss pressed, that leaden feeling in her stomach growing colder, and Cyan nodded. 

"From what we can tell." He spread his hands, shaking his head as he added, "But granted, we've not been able to tell much."

Weiss glanced to Ruby, ceding the decision to her. Nodding in understanding, Ruby's expression was grim as she spoke, her voice quiet, "Let's see him, then."

Cyan exhaled as he snapped on a pair of rubber gloves, but it was only when he reached for the plastic covering over the body that he hesitated. "Are you certain?"

"This is our job," Weiss told him, her tone sharp. She might not be delighted to view the chewed-up remains of a huntsman, but she wouldn't stand by and allow her legitimacy as a huntress to be questioned. She'd endured more than enough of that, lately. "We should see what we're up against."

Cyan nodded, and pushed back the cover. 

Lawson's body had been through hell. That was the only way Weiss could even imagine describing it, his flesh mangled and mauled, his lower half simply gone, leaving his entrails exposed and slashed to ribbons. When a Grimm killed for territorial reasons, it would be brutal--but on the same token, at least death would be _quick_. 

This was something else. This held all the hallmarks of a Grimm killing for the pleasure of it, and from the looks of Lawson's extensive injuries, it had certainly taken its time in playing with its food. 

_For all he was a thief, this would not have been an easy end,_ Weiss thought, feeling ill. She stripped her hands of her grey leather gloves, wordlessly snapping on a pair of rubber gloves Cyan passed to her. Ruby's fingerless armguards proved more troublesome, but eventually they were slipped through one of the belts at her waist, and they approached the body together.

"Have... you seen anything like this before?" Weiss asked, hating that she hesitated, wetting her lips as she tried to read Ruby's thoughts from her expression alone. 

Ruby made a sound beneath her breath, "The dead bodies?" Her tone was flat, even reluctant, and she wouldn't meet Weiss' eyes. "Plenty of those..."

"The torture," Weiss clarified, and she looked down to Lawson's remains, her stomach twisting and cold. "That's what this is."

"Agreed." Ruby's exhale was soft, and far too full of old regrets. "Annis. Ahriman, perhaps, though it wasn't quite..."

Weiss frowned then, worried for the unmistakable thread of weariness in Ruby's tone. Annis, she knew well enough from the fight with Salem. Ahriman, however, was a new name. Ruby seemed to read her concern, because she forced a smile--something that was the exact opposite of reassuring. 

"We... we can talk about those later," Ruby told her, dropping her gaze back down to Lawson's body. Those silver eyes sharpened, then, and she set a pair of fingers just shy of the mess left of his throat. "Take a look at that. What's...?"

"Ligature marks?" The pattern was unmistakable, and Weiss drew back, frowning as she tried to reconcile that with the picture painted by the rest of the injuries. It was a futile effort, and shaking her head, she asked, "How?"

Ruby pointed to Lawson's remaining hand. "Around his wrist, too." Looking to Cyan, she asked, "Do you mind if we...?"

Doctor Cyan nodded, accepting the tablet back from her. "Please."

Ruby's grasp of Lawson's wrist was delicate and gentle as she lifted it up to examine the underside. "It goes all the way around, and right around his throat..."

Taking the hint, Weiss leaned in, getting a closer look at the violent, blackened bruising about his throat. The skin had been split by whatever had been fastened about his neck, and this close to the carnage, Weiss almost didn't care to breathe. 

"Ropes. It hardly seems typical of a Grimm," Weiss concluded after a long moment, casting another critical gaze up and down what was left of Lawson's body. Clawmarks, chew marks, burns of all varieties. She frowned--those burns on the side of his face looked like a fire Dust concoction gone horribly wrong, the flesh blackened and rendered down to bone. 

A Grimm couldn't use Dust, so whatever had caused this... Weiss exhaled, her mind working. "You think it was his team, after all?"

"No. I agree with Doctor Cyan. They're long dead--just haven't found the bodies yet. Or won't," Ruby corrected herself, now examining the very edges of his wounds. She rubbed a finger along the inside of some particularly savage slashes, and her rubber glove came away with a sticky, black substance. "This... I've seen this."

Weiss stared down at it, casting another look to the blackened flesh at Lawson's neck, in his burns. Now that Ruby pointed it out… she'd seen it before, too, and her jaw tightened. "Salem?"

"How she used to grow her brood." Ruby's voice was low, her face blanched, her expression ill. "It's part of very powerful blood magic, Qrow thinks."

Weiss reached out, determined not to flinch as she pressed a finger to the huntsman's neck. "The ligature marks are troubling enough. But all of these injuries... there's no conceivable way a single Grimm could have caused all of them."

Ruby didn't answer, her gaze locked onto Lawson's mangled face, her eyebrows drawn together. Weiss followed her gaze, her stomach twisting at the way the ichor spidered and spread beneath his flesh from each wound, seeping inside his body. 

Weiss exhaled, and she was surprised and how steady it sounded as she looked back to Doctor Cyan. "The black compound. What do you know about it?"

"The ichor has been present at all scenes. In all bodies, despite the vast disparity of their injuries." He spread his hands, shaking his head in wonder. "We even found seawater in the lungs of one, and this far from the Atlesian port..."

"And you're absolutely certain it's the same compound?" Weiss pressed, her tone sharp. The disparity of the injuries could wait another time, but if the black slime was the link, then her direction was clear. A trifle derisively, she added, "Please tell me you thought to conduct a simple analysis."

Cyan scowled at her, the corner of his mouth twisting at Weiss' insinuation of negligence. "Each and every time. Same Grimm profile. Unknown."

"A Grimm occultist, perhaps?" Weiss looked back to Ruby, thoughtful. The occultists had been the remaining inhabitants of the supposedly abandoned western continent, worshippers of the power Salem wielded, witches who'd managed to carve out a life amongst the Grimm. 

"Not all the way in Solitas." Ruby's eyes were distant, and Weiss' heart twisted, her own discomfort forgotten. More than anything else, she hated seeing Ruby like… _this_. "Yang and I encountered one near Vale, but... she was there for me. How many of these have you seen, Doctor Cyan?"

"Too many." Doctor Cyan exhaled, long and low as he flicked through the file on his tablet. "A dozen over the past six months, and those are only the ones like this we can confirm. Vanta has managed to keep the attacks low-profile for the most part, and we've been fortunate nobody has come looking. But if a popular huntsman bites the dust, well, all of Mantle is at stake."

Weiss nodded, understanding his meaning. "Hunters are the lifeblood of this city. If they choose to stop taking contracts here..."

Ruby sighed, finally lifting her gaze to Weiss'. She looked tired. "Can you make a proper assessment of the claw marks?" Only when Weiss inclined her head did she look to Cyan, her expression hesitant. "Did the, uh... do you guys even _have_ cops?"

Cyan's expression was vaguely amused by the question, for all the bleakness of the situation, but he nodded regardless. 

"Oh, good. Great." Ruby's smile was awkward, that line of false cheer bleeding too strongly into her voice as she continued, "Don't suppose you got your hands on this guy's weapon?"

Cyan's eyebrows rose, and he turned half a pace, looking back toward one of the benches at the side of the room. "Yes. It was accidentally left with me when the body was delivered. Over this way."

Weiss rolled her eyes, disgusted. The morons in this city couldn't even keep their evidence stowed in a secure location. Why wasn't she the slightest bit surprised? 

Clicking her tongue in irritation, Weiss leaned in closer to Lawson's torso, casting a careful eye over the worst of the damage. Ligature marks and Dust burns aside, even the more straight-forward of the injuries didn't seem to make a modicum of sense They were a complete jumble of injuries, and taken on their own, could have been inflicted by a dozen of varieties of Grimm. 

The claw marks that had shredded Lawson's abdomen had the angle and spacing of an alpha beowolf's claws, and yet the torn shoulder could be the work of an ursa's jaws and nothing else. The crushed bone of his forearm? Injuries caused by a deathstalker's pincer if she'd ever seen one, the press of the scalloped edge still purple and vivid on his flesh. 

The analysis was far too easy--just like Ruby, Weiss had seen more than enough destruction, death and damage to know _exactly_ what creatures had caused these injuries. The challenge was somehow drawing order from the chaos--because no matter how she twisted the pieces, fitting everything together defied all reason. 

_The ichor. If it really has been present in all the bodies so far, then it's the link._ Weiss studied the swirl of darkness at the edges of each injury, pitch-black and haunting, and all too reminiscent of the markings on Salem's flesh she'd worn so proudly. 

She exhaled, leaning back, a prickle of unease starting up between her shoulder blades. No wonder Ruby had preferred to shift her attention to something less likely to remind her of the Crisis, all the trauma she'd endured for the sake of a war she hadn't started. Weiss didn't blame her for feeling as she did--she didn't blame her for leaving without a word, for choosing a life of her own. 

It was always difficult to see Ruby in pain, however. 

Weiss was still dwelling on the darkness lingering behind Ruby's eyes when she felt her scroll vibrate in her back pocket, and she started--were Yang and Blake already done with their file? Stripping her rubber gloves from her fingers, Weiss drew it from her pocket. 

When she saw the caller ID flash onto screen, however, she froze.

 _Whitley?_ Sharp alarm spiked through the pit of Weiss' stomach, only to be immediately dwarfed by pure anger. She'd warned him not to risk contacting her, she'd _told_ him she'd be busy! If they really could do nothing but sit on their hands and wait for the fall, then she was determined to at least enjoy her final few days with her team. 

Whatever it was, he could _wait_. 

Her mouth twisting, Weiss rejected the call with a swipe of her thumb. When she looked up, however, Ruby's gaze was on her, Lawson's blade forgotten in her hands, the question obvious in her eyes. 

Weiss' stomach fluttered strangely, equal parts affection, nervousness and worry. She forced a smile. 

"Nobody I can't call back." 

Ruby nodded, slowly, and Weiss couldn't help but wonder if she believed her.

###

It had been hours, and Blake had been staring at the file for so long the words had begun to blur and swirl together. No matter how she focused, tried to extract the meaning from old autopsy reports, everything seemed to fray in the weary fog of her mind, and she found herself needing to reread a paragraph a dozen times over.

The HQ's poor lighting certainly wasn't helping--some from the dim, overhead fluorescent lighting, but the bulk of it streaming from flat screens and computers about the hall--and Blake had an absolutely roaring headache to show for it. 

Stubborn and refusing to think of her earlier conversation with Yang, Blake resettled in her uncomfortable chair once more, rereading the list of crime scenes again and again. 

Many of the bodies were located on the edge of Mantle's suburbs, amongst the districts that had been mostly abandoned to the city's ongoing war with the creatures of Grimm, the bullet-ridden wreckage and crumbling debris flashing to Blake's mind unbidden. In a city like this, half-demolished and vacant buildings provided far too many nooks for a hunter to vanish, and far too many places for a Grimm to slip through the fences and nest. 

The Grimm, Blake could guess, was likely very old. Age had a way of granting Grimm an immense, frightening intelligence, and the location many of the bodies had been found screamed 'deliberate strategy'. Given the extensive injuries the victims suffered...

 _Nobody heard them scream,_ Blake decided, her thoughts circling dark and morbid as a chill ran down her spine. _Perhaps they weren't even able to do that._

Yang, meanwhile, had charmed herself access to one of the nearby computers. Blake had caught a few words from the exchange, her lips curling into a reluctant smile as she'd listened in--something about Team RWBY, the Salem Crisis and being _oh so grateful_ for any assistance--and honestly, that star-struck looking liaison had been entirely unprepared for that kind of onslaught.

Blake cast a sidelong look toward where her partner was working, some of the tension between her shoulders easing as she observed the intense concentration in Yang's eyes as she rapidly clicked through the Mantle hunter database. She'd taken the task of digging through the backgrounds of the known or suspected victims, combing through everything from contracts undertaken, school histories, to even the locations of their accommodation during their stay in the city. 

If there was anything Blake knew to trust about Yang, it was that her parter had an incredible nose for trouble. Yang could find a lead by following her gut, digging in deep and chasing an idea through to its conclusion. 

It was as useful in hunting as it was frustrating in their personal lives, but if there were any answers hidden in the backgrounds of the victims, anything that could link them, Yang would find it. 

That said... Blake looked back down to her own work, that prickle of unease starting up at the nape of her neck again. Yang had been muted since they'd had their disagreement hours earlier, and again, Blake had to remind herself that time and space to think was _good_ , that disagreements were both natural and normal in a healthy romantic relationship.

 _'Healthy'_ being the key word, for all that Blake's experience with such things was disturbingly limited. 

If Yang was truly upset with Blake, if they really had a problem with where they both perceived the line to be... she knew Yang would be honest with how she felt. 

Blake could trust her-- _did_ trust her. She just had to remember that relationships weren't always smooth sailing. 

Resettling her shoulders, Blake turned her attention back to the reports on the desk in front of her, determined to put it out of her mind again, however tempting it was to dwell. They had a job to do, and a hefty bounty if they managed to pull off what dozens of other hunters had apparently failed. 

_Perhaps a word with some of these other investigators would be useful?_ Blake wondered, scanning the logged findings of one of the more recent contract-takers. Her eyes narrowed, thoughtful. _'Name Redacted'. Of course it would be, but Vanta had made a great show of claiming Mantle had nothing to hide..._

"Hey! Found something?"

Blake looked up from the report, her eyebrows rising as she watched Yang push her chair back from the desk, hefting a truly substantial stack of paper under her prosthetic arm as she went. 

"Perhaps," she replied, tracking Yang's strides as she closed the distance between them. "I can't be sure yet, but..."

Yang tapped her cheek, thoughtful. "But it's a start?"

Blake nodded.

"Great as that is, I'm thinking we both need a break, though." Yang's smile flashed wide and warm, but her tone was a little rueful as she added, "Almost wish we were looking at mangled remains with Ruby and Weiss."

"I'm fine." Blake shrugged, deliberately ignoring the steady throb of her headache, the way her eyes burned. She'd found a thread, she was sure of it, and if she stopped now...

"Nice try, but the lead can--and should--wait. It's been there this long, right?" Yang tilted her head, her smile widening as Blake felt her cheeks colour just slightly. _Caught._ "Food, drink, a bit of fresh air, and you'll feel sharper for sure. Maybe we can find our way somewhere _not_ guarded by Vanta 'I'm Flaying You With My Eyes When You Aren't Looking' Scherwiz?"

Clearing her throat, Blake tried, "Weren't you using the database?"

Yang patted the reams of paper beneath her arm, her expression insufferably smug. "Printed out a whole stack of stuff. Don't see a reason we need to go over reams of paper here, and not at home."

 _Home,_ Blake repeated, silent. Their apartment had been their accommodation for all of twenty four hours, and already Yang was so comfortable as to call it 'home'. She couldn't help but admire that, for all that she'd never be able to share such an easy feeling. 

Sighing, she glanced back down to the report she'd been pouring over for the past fifteen minutes, and perhaps she could concede Yang had a good point. If there was a genuine lead, then it would remain there even if she took a break. And if there wasn't, well, what did she have to lose?

Blake's continuing silence had been taken for reluctance, however, and Yang leaned over the desk. Her golden hair spilled over her fluffy collar and down her shoulder, her smile just as charming as the one she'd turned on that poor liaison. 

"I'll buy you lunch?" Yang tried, and this time, Blake couldn't quite stifle her laugh. She really had no shame, did she?

"Fine," Blake said, smiling up at her partner. It felt like all her worries about healthy relationships and communication faded away beneath that sunny regard. "You win this round."

Yang's answering laugh was heartfelt and warm, and she leaned back again, digging her hands into the pockets of her fleece-lined coat. "Knew you'd see reason eventually!"

"Fall prey to bribery, you mean." Blake yawned, stretching to rid herself of the kinks from her back before working to restack the file. 

"Same diff, isn't it?" Yang countered, entirely too cheerful for the grim work they'd been undertaking. Finally done collecting the spare reports into the battered folder, Blake accepted the arm Yang offered her, allowing her partner to help her to her feet before leaning up to press a kiss to her jaw. 

Yang shot her a pleased look, colour rising in her cheeks at the simple act of affection. Blake stifled her laugh with the back of her hand, tugging Yang along with her as they headed for the headquarters exit.

###

With Doctor Cyan and one of his assistants looking to finish up the autopsy report, Weiss and Ruby found themselves very firmly kicked out of the examination room. As they'd lingered in the hallway outside, Ruby had dug a protein bar out of her pocket, looking down at it with reluctant distaste.

After having spent the better part of an hour looking at Lawson's body, Weiss could hardly blame her for not having the stomach for food. Ruby's semblance meant she had a higher metabolism than most, however, and Weiss wasn't going to allow her partner to starve herself half to death for any reason. 

As Ruby chewed robotically on the ration bar, her gaze distant and her smile missing entirely, Weiss sighed. 

This… wasn't right. She couldn't banish the memory of the grim regret on her partner's face while they'd examined Lawson's body, looking for all the world as if she blamed _herself_. Ruby's heart had always been too big, too open, too easily hurt. 

She had none of Weiss' defences, but that had always been what was so wonderful about her. It just meant that Weiss had to ensure Ruby didn't dwell on things that _weren't_ her fault. 

"It's still likely to be some hours before Doctor Cyan has the report ready," she said, her voice far too loud in the quiet morgue office. She turned for the door at the other end of the hallway--the way out. "I'm certain he'll call us when it's ready, so I see no reason we should bore ourselves to death by remaining."

"What're you thinking?" Ruby asked, falling into step just behind Weiss, even if her voice was still seemed flat and exhausted. "A walk, or something?"

Weiss didn't respond immediately, her mind working as she pushed the doors open. It was late afternoon, she noted, and even by Mantle's standards, it had grown even colder. Digging her gloved hands deeper into her pockets, Weiss cast a cautious eye back toward Ruby who was...

Predictably, already huddling into her cloak from the cold. 

_That will do just fine._ She never quite imagined she'd ever be thankful for her partner's chronic poor preparation, but life was just full of surprises. 

"I have a better idea," Weiss said, aloud. At Ruby's questioning look, she waved a lofty hand, allowing the corner of her lips to quirk in a tiny smile. "We're going shopping."

"Are you serious?" Ruby wrinkled her nose, her head tilting to the side. "We just spent an hour poking at a dead guy, and you want to go shopping?"

"Yes." Weiss made a show of casting a critical eye up and down her partner, resting her hand on her hip. "Quite frankly, I've spent more than enough time this trip watching you shiver miserably in the cold, so we're fixing that. Today."

Ruby's cheeks had gone red at Weiss' open, assessing stare, and beneath her breath, Weiss caught some nonsensical muttering about _mail delivery_ and _dad_. She shook her head, refusing to be swayed by feeble platitudes, turning on her heel and leading the way toward Mantle's central district. 

She only managed to go a few steps alone before Ruby fell into place beside her, the feel of it so fluid and natural she felt her heart twist. If things had just been more simple...

"I'm totally fine, you know." 

Weiss wasn't quite sure what Ruby was referring too--the clothing or her mood? She didn't respond directly, merely humming beneath her breath, unconvinced by the poor lie. 

Ruby groaned, slowing just a few steps as she pulled out the tried and true line, "As your leader--"

"--it's our job to support you. It's _my_ job as your partner to make sure you can be as effective as possible." Weiss shot Ruby a look, arching an eyebrow. Determined to bring that smile back, she couldn't resist adding, "Besides. Perhaps I can do something about your tragic lack of style, while we're at it."

Ruby stared at her, managing to look offended for all of three seconds before bursting into reluctant, genuine laughter as the charade failed her. Weiss felt that flutter of warmth return to her stomach as she was rewarded with Ruby's brilliant smile, and her own grew in response, fond and unguarded. 

"Okay, fine." Ruby closed the distance between them once more, nudging Weiss' arm with her elbow. "But I'm in charge of the style!"

"Unfortunately," Weiss agreed, earning herself a roll of eyes. Ruby's cheeks were still flushed red, but her smile hadn't faded, her silver eyes bright.

Weiss hadn't forgotten the call she'd rejected in the examination room. As far as she was concerned, however, Whitley could afford to wait--the absolute _last_ thing she wanted to deal with was that whole mess. 

With Ruby smiling at her, it had always been far too easy to push the world away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weiss' problems should be starting to gain a bit of clarity by now. Or, at least I hope it is.
> 
> As for Blake and Yang, this is absolutely not the last time they're going to talk about this. More on that soon!
> 
> I do sincerely apologise for how heavy this chapter was in exposition. Unfortunately I'm still very new to writing fics with a stronger plot. 
> 
> As Yang has put it, live and learn, right?
> 
> Thanks for all the lovely comments last chapter! They really do a lot to keep me going.


	5. Trainwreck In-Progress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby gets some new threads, Weiss likes them far too much, and they have a long-awaited discussion about Weiss' status as heiress of the SDC.

The chill in the wind had sharpened further as Weiss and Ruby had made their way over to Mantle's central district. Despite the brisk pace Weiss had set, the damp, miserable cold had long since seeped in through her coat and gloves. The clouds overhead had slowly begun to darken, and idly, Weiss wondered if Mantle's constant threat of a storm would this time eventuate. 

_If Ruby has her way, we'll find ourselves stuck in the rain,_ Weiss thought, a sour twist to her mouth. She turned half a pace, ready to rebuke her reluctant partner with a bit more feeling. "Ruby, hurry up--"

Weiss cut off, scowling at the red petals drifting to the cracked sidewalk, the source of them suddenly and very conspicuously absent. She growled beneath her breath, turning back around to glare more effectively at her incredibly unfunny partner. 

Ruby merely tilted her head at Weiss' irritated look, her eyes wide, her expression far too innocent to fool anybody. 

"Really? You're telling _me_ to hurry up?" Ruby's voice was low and teasing, but if Weiss listened closely, her tone still held an odd note of flatness, lingering and wrong beneath it all. "If I knew where we were going, I'd already be there! Then we'd see who was _slow._ "

Determined not to let her temper get the better of her for Ruby's sake, Weiss sighed. "I really should learn to expect the semblance abuse, shouldn't I?"

"Yeah." Ruby's smile became wolfish when Weiss moved to brush by her, seamlessly falling into step with her. The scent of rose petals was strong in Weiss' nose, clinging to her thoughts, dulling them to a sense of warm contentment. 

After a few moments, however, Ruby ventured cautiously, "...so, uh, where _are_ we going?"

"You can really feel a leader's authority in your every word, Ruby," Weiss told her, smiling to take the dry sting from her words and leading them through the crowds. Despite the threat of the storm, there was still a surprising amount of people out and about. "I spotted a few promising shops yesterday on our survey of Mantle's districts."

Ruby faked a cough into her hand. _"Sexile."_

"Yes. That." Weiss felt her cheeks go pink as Ruby began to laugh, an undignified sort of giggle loud enough to draw looks from the hunters they passed by. Swatting Ruby on the shoulder, Weiss hissed, "Will you stop that and be serious?"

"Fine, fine." Ruby grinned across at her, still entirely too delighted by the lowbrow joke--she was far too much like her older sister at times. "Shopping is super important to you, I understood that back at _Beacon._ "

"Then I suppose you're just going to need to trust me." 

Despite the eyeroll the comment earned her, Weiss was satisfied as she led Ruby on past the rows of Dust and bookshops, weaving between the hunters and Mantle locals on the cracked and broken pavement. Central shopping district or not, between the abandoned, gutted buildings and crumbling brickwork, half of Mantle could charitably be called a deathtrap ripe for bulldozing. 

Restoration works and reconstruction made up a huge portion of Mantle's yearly costs--Weiss recalled that much from her tutors and her studies at Beacon. But when buildings ended up damaged and broken at a faster rate than the underpaid and under-supplied construction crews could manage...

One of the shops across the street had been demolished entirely, its owner likely having given Mantle up for good. The empty, muddy lot had been set up as a camp site, several old, rusted drums stuffed with wood and set ablaze to keep a group of weary looking locals warm. 

Weiss turned her gaze back to the throngs of people ahead of her, mouth twisting. It had been just over a year ago that her father had closed the gates to the main Mantle quarry, citing the economic downturn that had resulted from the Crisis--as dubious as Weiss knew the claim to be. She remembered the mass demonstrations, the protests, even the possibility of Atlesian intervention. None of it had mattered, and none of her father's promises had eventuated as the whipped-up outrage in Atlas had faded to apathy. 

Even now, Mantle suffered. As much as Weiss loathed Jacques' decisions, she couldn't do a thing about any of it--that much had become resoundingly clear. 

The hunter outfitter shop Weiss had in mind was small, set in amongst the dozens of other supply depots and outfitters geared toward Mantle's hunter clientele. She'd picked it on a whim, but it certainly had the unexpected benefit of being far less busy comparatively--there would be fewer people to watch them, and fewer sidelong looks. 

After the earlier business with Vanta, Weiss wasn't sure how well she would handle any further confrontations with people better off minding their own business.

The store's interior was both brightly lit and warm as Weiss led the way inside, and from just behind her, she could hear Ruby sigh in relief. Silently concurring but hardly about to admit it, she pulled her gloves from her fingers and folded them into one of her coat pockets. 

A shiver ran down her spine, and she rubbed her frozen hands together, trying to coax some warmth back into her joints as she gave the store a critical glance over. It was only in recent months that she'd needed to start looking toward... budget solutions, so she was hardly an authority on places like this. 

However, it seemed she'd stumbled on a store that acted as both a hunter outfitter and a weapon parts supplier. Weiss groaned beneath her breath as Ruby's expression brightened at the sight of the weapons on the wall--because of course--and immediately she caught Weiss' shoulder. 

"Now _this_ is more like it!" she told Weiss, and how, exactly, was Weiss supposed to say 'no' to such a hopeful look?

Lingering back near where the clothing racks began, Weiss watched Ruby peer up at the weapons, the careful way she examined the array of parts in the glass case, how she pulled out the crumpled list of required replacement gears she'd made in the early hours of the morning. 

A reluctant smile curled the corner of Weiss' mouth. Ruby might have saved the world, might have endured more than anyone should have been asked to bear--but some things never changed. 

Exhaling, Weiss turned her attention back to the task at hand, lifting the arm of a nearby shirt, before moving to make a slow circuit of the shop. While the styles the store offered were pedestrian--and were several seasons out of fashion--the garments themselves seemed sturdy enough. 

Better yet, they were heavy, woollen blends, fleece linings, leathers and furs, and in the back Weiss could spot some thermal undershirts in every conceivable colour. She snorted beneath her breath--they knew their clientele. After all, hunters _loved_ their colours. 

Ruby was still lingering in the weapons section by the time Weiss completed her circuit, a small bag of parts for Crescent Rose open on the counter that a shop attendant was filling up. The attendant was pretty, Weiss supposed, and she was watching Ruby talk with rapt attention. She stifled a laugh as Ruby held her hands out wide, and Ruby's smile was easy as she regaled the girl with her scythe's specs. 

After a moment, Ruby paused, pulling Crescent Rose from its spot at the small of her back as Weiss approached, hitting the catches and unfurling the weapon to its full, impressive length. 

"Designed her myself, you know," Ruby bragged, as if that wasn't true for every hunter but _Jaune._ She leaned her hip against the counter, her smile crooked and confident now she was talking about the one topic she could claim ultimate authority on. 

It was entirely too reminiscent of Yang's flirting with literally anything with a _pulse,_ and Weiss felt the first prickle of irrational, baseless, _petty_ jealousy. Before she could help herself, she closed the distance, effectively commandeering Ruby's full attention as she leaned against the counter next to her. 

"I suppose it is impressive, if eye-sore colours and the subtlety of a stampeding deathstalker make you weak at the knees like _her._ " With a flourish, Weiss drew Myrtenaster from the strap at her hip, making a show of examining the subtle runes engraved along the length of the blade, before cutting her gaze back to the shop attendant. "Of course, Myrtenaster is on another level entirely when it comes to both grace and semblance-weapon synergy."

The attendant was starting to look a little nervous, the glisten of sweat at her temples speaking volumes. Weiss knew was being unreasonably spiteful toward her, absolutely--she just couldn't find it in herself to stop. She turned her attention back to Ruby. 

"'Semblance-weapon synergy?' Where did you learn that one? _Velvet?_ " Ruby scoffed, but the amused tilt to her lips was enough. 

Of course, Weiss could _privately_ admit Crescent Rose was a mechanical masterpiece, and that even as a child Ruby had unrivalled skill when it came to weapons engineering. But over the years, she'd also developed an equal love of pushing Ruby's buttons over Crescent Rose's performance, drawing her into complicated hypothetical scenarios with no grounding in reality. 

Those had usually ended in challenges to spar, to prove exactly who had designed their weapon better--that said spars had just as often devolved into laughing fits and increasingly stupid stunts toward the end of the Crisis was another matter entirely. 

One Weiss wasn't quite prepared to be honest with herself about--not now. 

"Where I learned the term hardly matters when it's correct." Weiss waved a hand, perhaps a little too satisfied with the way the dismissive remark kindled the fire in Ruby's eyes. "I think my results speak for themselves, don't you?"

"Maybe when I kick your butt all over Mantle," Ruby shot back, advancing a slow step. Her silver eyes gleamed a challenge. "So d'you still favour your left knee when you cast, or will I just find that out the hard way?" 

It was only then that Weiss realised just how _close_ they'd gotten, the distance between them reduced to a handful of inches. Worse, she hadn't realised just how much she was enjoying it. There was a crackle in her veins she'd somehow forgotten over the past year, too invested in a fight she couldn't win. 

She'd forgotten how much she'd craved this. 

Rattled, Weiss backed away a step, her skin erupting in goosebumps as she scrambled to shove her wants and needs back into their safe little boxes. 

"Well." Weiss swallowed, trying to figure out how to settle the deafening pound of her heart in her ears. "As delightful as it would be to put you back in your place as a mere second best, we still have a task here--or had you forgotten?"

The thrilling spark in Ruby's eyes snuffed out, and she slumped against the counter, defeated. "I'd kinda hoped you'd get all fired up and forget..."

Weiss sighed--she supposed that was a rather Ruby Rose approach to problem-solving.

"Nice try, but I wasn't born yesterday," Weiss told her, feeling somewhat safer now that Ruby wasn't looking at her quite like _that_. She couldn't quite banish the memory of way Ruby's eyes had lit up at the idea of a spar, though, so after a long moment, she tried, "Perhaps... tomorrow?"

Ruby's bright smile was reward enough, and Weiss felt a buzz of warmth run down the length of her spine. 

"Maybe we can check out the fence!" Ruby said, following Weiss back to the rows of clothing, brimming with excited energy. "Vanta did say there were some goliaths getting close to one of the city's borders, and I can't even _remember_ the last time I got to fight one of those." 

"I'm sure it'll be well worth the blood and bruises," Weiss agreed, her voice dry as she nodded to the clothing racks ahead of them. Perhaps a trifle smug, she added, "After you. You did say you wanted to be in charge of the style, correct?"

Ruby grumbled beneath her breath, all sourness for the moment despite her normally sweet disposition. As she moved to give the clothing on the racks a closer look, Weiss couldn't help but kick herself. 

She'd been very, _very_ clear with herself regarding her feelings about Ruby. It was not safe to act--worse, it was pure _stupidity_ to even consider it, emotion at a time when soon enough she might not have even that luxury. 

She couldn't deny the prickle of jealousy she'd felt when the girl at the counter had flirted with Ruby, however. She couldn't deny her childish reaction to it--she couldn't even deny that she was satisfied with the outcome, commandeering Ruby's full attention once more, as though she was entitled to it.

She wasn't, and it was hardly fair on Ruby. It wasn't fair on _either_ of them for Weiss to entertain thoughts she had no intention of acting on. 

"How about this?" Ruby asked from where she was examining the stock, just a few racks over. She lifted the garment up over her head for Weiss' consideration. 

Weiss gave it a dismissive once over, noting the thin cotton blend of the red jacket with a flat, unhappy stare. It was hardly better than what Ruby was currently wearing. 

"Too light," she said, and as Ruby rolled her eyes, she huffed. "Honestly, Ruby, do you want to freeze to death out there?"

"I guess not," Ruby sighed, and Weiss listened to the sound of coat-hangers moving and clacking against one another as she dug around another rack. "Aha! How about... this one?"

Made rightly skeptical by the playful lilt to Ruby's tone, Weiss craned her neck, cringing at the ruffled black and red number held in Ruby's hand. It was entirely too reminiscent of her original huntress outfit--one she'd long since outgrown. 

"Too many frills. You're not a child anymore, Ruby."

"Frills aren't childish." Ruby's lip jutted in a pretend pout, but she obediently put the garment back on the rack regardless. Intent on nipping any further outlandish suggestions in the bud, Weiss moved closer, watching as Ruby drew an oversized parka from the tangle of gear. 

It was far, _far_ too baggy, too easily able to hide the strength in Ruby's shoulders, the trim tautness of her stomach and waist. Weiss was also not going to dare mentioning _that_ as her reason. Instead, she simply shook her head. "No." 

Ruby's eyes widened, and she looked back down to the garment, confused. "But it looks so warm--"

"Not a chance."

Ruby's expression became pensive as she considered the mass of red in her hands, before she shrugged and set it aside to dig about the racks a little longer. 

Weiss suppressed a sigh as she watched her partner bypass several suitable options with no more than a sidelong glance. She really shouldn't have conceded the style to Ruby's jurisdiction. This was going to take forever.

"Huh. This looks cool!" 

Weiss frowned, lifting onto her toes to see over the rack between them both. That level of energy in Ruby's tone never really boded well for anyone, and she--

She barely caught the garment before it hit her square in the face, and blinking rapidly, she held it out at arms length for consideration. It was some ungodly thing of black leather and a grey fur lining--and of course, the _red_. Her partner had always taken the concept of "all things in moderation" and made it entirely optional. 

Weiss looked back to Ruby, intent on letting her know exactly what she thought, but the words froze on her tongue. Ruby's expression was openly enthusiastic, even hopeful, and Weiss abruptly realised that her opinion on it didn't really matter. This was Ruby's show. 

Weiss tossed it back to Ruby, before pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger.

"Fine. Try it on, then." 

Ruby's smile brightened, and she ducked back amongst the racks. "One sec!" 

Weiss sighed, tapping her foot, listening to the sound of Ruby humming beneath her breath as she continued to poke around. She couldn't really believe the attitude reversal going on here-- _now_ Ruby was completely on board with the shopping? 

Frustrated, Weiss said, "Come on, Ruby! While we're both still young." 

Ruby popped up several racks over, a pair of gloves, a red, thermal undershirt and some fur-lined leggings accompanying the coat in her arms. She wrinkled her nose. "What? You said it yourself! This city is freezing!"

Weiss was fresh out of sympathy for her, and her tone was just a little cutting as she said, "As you were warned. Repeatedly."

"Psh, details..." Ruby waved a hand, but her expression was sheepish as she made her way toward the change room at the side of the store. 

Weiss trailed along behind her, and in spite of her prior lectures toward herself, however, she found her gaze lingering on the set of Ruby's shoulders, at the definition of muscle built up from years working with Crescent Rose. 

Ruby slipped into one of the change rooms, but not before fumbling a strange approximation of a salute, promising to be quick. Weiss hadn't replied, shaking her head at the ridiculousness of her partner's quirks, simply leaning against the wall outside. 

She took a deep breath, trying to cool the flutter of warmth in the hollow of her chest. She couldn't do this. She was a Schnee, cold as ice and unyielding as steel, and she was _better than this._ But here she was, allowing her thoughts to linger on the sound of Ruby getting changed, on the clothing hitting the floor, the buckles clinking and the zips sliding--

Feverish and desperate for a distraction, Weiss pulled out her scroll, checking her messages. Blake had sent through some list of locations, but Weiss felt too frazzled to process the text properly. She needed to get a grip.

"Weiss?" Ruby broke the unsteady trainwreck of Weiss' thoughts, peering around the change room door with a hesitant expression. "Uh... so. What do you think?"

Ruby stepped out from behind the door, and Weiss very nearly choked on her next breath as she tried desperately not to stare. If she'd believed her thoughts had been going in a dangerous direction before... 

The coat was certainly an improvement over the ill-fitting, worn-out red hoodie Ruby had been wearing since Mistral. The heavy, fur-lined fabric was far better suited to Ruby's height and muscle mass, fitting snug against her shoulders and abdomen, and the more logical, objective part of Weiss' mind vaguely noted it left enough room to allow for Ruby's more acrobatic fighting style. She'd kept her old combat skirt, but her leggings and gloves looked much warmer.

It accentuated everything Weiss had already struggled to keep her eyes from lingering on--Ruby's strength, her flexibility, the way she was really, really _not_ the kid she'd been partnered with all those years ago--and the shop was suddenly too warm.

"It's..." Weiss hated the way she faltered, struggling desperately with the basic concept of language. After a moment, she settled on the comforting familiarity of practicality and business. "It looks appropriate." 

_Appropriate,_ she echoed silently, her gaze remaining stubbornly on Ruby's face. _The very way my thoughts are not._

Ruby blinked, ducking her head at the lukewarm response and rubbing the back of her neck, shy. "Uh. Yeah, it's warm which is nice, but... does it look okay?"

The hair at the nape of Weiss' neck prickled, and she wet her lips. "Yes. It looks fine." 

As far as she was concerned, it was _more_ than fine, even if the snug fit of that cloth against Ruby's body might very well spell the end of her. No matter what lies Weiss repeated to herself about distance and the Schnee name, she was only human--but gods, she could get used to this. 

Weiss reached out impulsively before she could think to stop herself, resettling Ruby's collar and dusting a few stray fur strands from Ruby's shoulder. It was impossible not to let her touch linger on the solid strength beneath the fur-lined cloth, her every clever, mildly-caustic remark vanishing from her mind.

It left her with nothing to ground the crackle of electricity in her veins.

Ruby was close. _Really_ close, and Weiss had to tilt her head back to meet her eyes properly. Ruby really had gotten tall over the years, and even now it sent a shiver down the length of Weiss' spine. That dark, red-faded hair flopped into her eyes, her smile hesitant, and she was... honestly the most beautiful thing Weiss had ever seen. 

Weiss dared to let her gaze drop to the curve of Ruby's lips, fleeting and feverish.

She couldn't do this. She really, really couldn't. 

"It looks good," Weiss told Ruby, crisp and matter-of-fact and not at all like she'd been wondering how soft those lips really were. She backed away, putting much-needed distance between them again, settling in her spot against the wall. 

Lightning still thrummed through her, and she didn't dare look directly at Ruby for fear where impulse would lead her. The jealousy, the bar, now this... When had her feelings grown so _unmanageable_?

"Okay. That's... good, then." 

Out of the corner of her eye, Weiss saw Ruby blink, saw her run a nervous hand through her loose, dark hair. Weiss bit down on the inside of her cheek, forcing herself to remain silent, and it was only when the change room door swung shut that Weiss had the courage to bury her face in her hands. 

There was no telling what Ruby was going to read into... this. 

_This_ \--whatever it could really be described as--was far, far too dangerous, and she had to either back away from this dizzying, logic-defying, idiotic love for Ruby, or--

 _Grow up and do something about it._

At times like these, it almost felt like it would be worth it. Worth the pain, worth the uncertainty, worth the pure selfishness of wanting something more. 

It would be incredibly unfair of Weiss to ask Ruby to support her through everything to come. It would be just as unfair to paint a damn target on her back, when she'd struggled so hard to win the future of the world. In the end, it was the memory of the darkness in Ruby's eyes after the fall of Salem--only reinforced by the more recent ache of the absence in her gaze at the morgue--that finally cooled Weiss down enough to gain some perspective. 

_Ruby's been through more than enough._ There was no conceivable reason for Weiss to add to her burden, no matter how much she wished for more. 

By the time Ruby emerged, back in her faded old gear, Weiss had a firmer grip on the chaotic snarl of her emotions. The clothing she'd picked out was folded over one arm, but coiled on top of the new coat was a scarf. 

Ruby gave her a bright smile, closing the distance between them with without a further word and looping the length of the scarf about Weiss' neck with a laugh. 

"So we match again!"

Control entirely forgotten, Weiss' cheeks flushed hot again as she watched Ruby make her way toward the counter. With hands that betrayed her with a tremble, she lifted the knitted end of the scarf. It was soft, warm, and the same vibrant shade of eye-searing red as the cloak Ruby had worn for as long as they'd known one another. 

Weiss swallowed, blinking rapidly. She... always _had_ liked red. 

The buzzing of her scroll in her coat pocket snapped Weiss from her daze, and frowning, she dropped the scarf's end and drew the device out. 

_Whitley, again?_ Her jaw clenched, and she surveyed the empty outfitter shop. There was nobody in sight but herself, Ruby and the girl at the counter. She shot a glance toward Ruby, talking a mile a minute at said girl, before sighing. 

This wasn't the time to deal with the mess back home, but she clearly needed to give Whitley _something._

_Tonight,_ she tapped out to him one the buzzing had stopped, encrypting the message before she hit send. That would stay any further calls--and leave her with time to deal with whatever Ruby had read into her reaction.

###

With Doctor Cyan still working on the autopsy report even after the whole clothing-shopping-gauntlet-disaster, Ruby and Weiss still had plenty of time to burn before they could head back to the apartment. As Ruby had trailed after Weiss, her new gear and replacement weapon parts carefully stowed in a few bags, her appetite finally made itself known with an embarrassingly loud gurgle.

After the whole dead-Lawson thing, with the added throwback twist with the ichor, Ruby was more surprised it had returned so quickly. A few paces ahead, Weiss looked back over her shoulder, frowning. Ruby offered her a feeble shrug. 

"Guess I'm hungry after all." She tried to laugh it off, but despite her best effort, it still fell a little flat, a little weary. 

"You should have said something." Weiss' frown only deepened, and she looked up at the cloudy sky. Thunder rumbled overhead, deep and warning. "Pick a place, then."

Not needing to be told twice, Ruby shielded her eyes with a hand and pointed at random to a small, busy shop halfway up the block. 

"That one'll do just fine!" she said, flashing Weiss a smile as she took the lead. She was determined to banish the seriousness in Weiss' expression, to bring back some of the playful banter they'd shared back at the outfitter shop. 

Weiss was clever, an edge of competitiveness to her that had never really dulled over the years, and when Weiss was like that... It was easy to forget everything but rising to the challenge she'd thrown down. Back at the shop, the poisonous twist of anxiety in her stomach had slowly begun to loosen. 

For the space of a few minutes, everything had felt _normal_ , and it brought to mind the old days of Team RWBY so vividly her heart still ached. 

Then there had been that disastrous moment of floundering awkwardness at the change room. Weiss had been so close, the scent of her perfume sending a constant shiver down Ruby's spine, and the simple act of breathing had seemed incomprehensible. For the space of a dozen rapid heartbeats, Ruby had been frozen in place, her every nerve ending alight with the same fire that had dragged her awake so early that morning. 

She'd very nearly blown everything and kissed Weiss. Worse--she absolutely still wanted to. 

_Yang's right. I'm an actual disaster in progress when it comes to "just friends"._

Swallowing past the miserable twist of want in her chest, Ruby forced a cheerful grin back in Weiss' direction, filling the silence between them with a constant stream of commentary about Mantle. Maybe she _was_ rambling--it was still better than being left with the alternating trainwreck of either her memories of the Crisis or her crush on Weiss. 

The store she'd chosen was maybe some sort of diner--Ruby wasn't exactly well versed in what was a cafe, what was a diner and what the subtle differences between all the categories actually _were_ in Solitas. Either way, it was busy, it had food and it had plenty of places to sit, and Ruby pushed her way inside to where it was warm, holding the door open for Weiss with a grin. 

Weiss merely shook her head at the gesture, heading for one of the tables toward the rear of the diner. Ruby followed Weiss' lead down the narrow interior, and slid into the booth across from her with a deep, satisfied sigh. She let her bags fall from her hands, haphazard beneath the table, and after only a moment's hesitation, she drew Crescent Rose from its straps on her back and set it down next to where Weiss had leaned her rapier. 

Instinctive, she brushed some of the visible, worn-out gears she needed to replace, before withdrawing. She'd have plenty of time to do further work on her scythe tonight, especially if her dreams ended up being as full of restless horror as she feared. 

Weiss was watching her, however, a cool and assessing blue gaze that always felt so _sharp._ Settling her crossed arms on the table in front of her and resting her chin on her forearms, Ruby shot her partner a smile, trying to ease the weirdness curdling in the pit of her stomach since she'd almost messed up. 

"So..." Ruby tried, attempting 'conversational', botching the landing spectacularly and instead landing squarely on 'awkward'. 

"So." Unlike Ruby, Weiss wasn't slouched all over the table, her back straight and her hands folded in her lap. She nodded to the counter, then. "Why don't you get yourself a menu, since you're the one who is so hungry?"

Ruby squinted at her, confused. "They... aren't gonna bring one over?"

"This is Mantle, not Vale." Weiss waved a gloved hand, her expression irritable. "You can't expect to be waited on hand and foot in a place like--"

As if to spite her, Weiss' stomach gave an entirely undignified growl, and she cut off, her cheeks going pink. Grinning, Ruby shot her partner a sly, knowing look. Politeness? She didn't quite know what to do with. But this? She could work with this. 

"Oh. You're _hangry._ " Ruby nodded, as if all the pieces suddenly fitted together. "I get it now!"

Weiss froze, her eyes narrowing a fraction. "Excuse me?"

"Hungry. And angry because you're hungry, so like, mush the words together and--"

"Yes, Ruby," Weiss broke in, burying her face in her palm for a moment. "I understood that part, but--"

"Weiss Schnee is actually hungry," Ruby said, low and teasing, just to see her partner's cheeks colour a little darker, to see her cross her arms against her chest, defensive over the silliest things. 

"Of course I'm hungry," Weiss said with a scoff, her mouth twisting in irritation. "You can't fight on an empty stomach." 

"Yeah." Ruby offered her a shrug, settling back against the back of the booth. Weiss still wasn't looking at her, and smile widening, Ruby couldn't resist adding, "Maybe if you'd figured that out earlier you might not have ended up so short, you know?"

"I am a perfectly normal height, I'll have you know." Annoyance seemingly forgotten, Weiss' tone was amused. Ruby felt a flush of warmth rise up in her chest. 

"The first time you passed out in Mistral was kind of hilarious, though," she replied, studying the way Weiss' lips threatened to curve into a real smile. 

"Don't remind me."

Satisfied, Ruby sighed, allowing herself to flop over the width of the table, and not just as an excuse to get a little closer to her partner. 

"I need food," she told Weiss, her words muffled by her sleeve, adding a groan for good measure to make her point clear. "Something to get the taste of those ration bars out of my mouth!" 

Weiss drew her scroll out of her pocket, studying something on the screen with absent disregard as she said, "So a reprise of yesterday's coffee, then?" 

Ruby sat up with a jolt, her mouth snapping open to argue with whatever insanity gripping her partner. Before she could get so much as a squeak out, Weiss raised her hand. 

"Relax. I'd hardly inflict a round two on either of us." Weiss set her scroll down then, clicking her tongue. "You should know me better than that."

"Just trying to be sure!" Ruby huffed, indignant, but as Weiss arched an eyebrow at her, she winced. "...it was really bad, okay?"

Weiss laughed, the sound of it soft and barely audible over the general din of the diner, and set a few cards of lien on the table by Ruby's elbow. 

"Coffee. And something not entirely mired in saturated fat, if that's even possible in a place like this." 

Ruby shot her a grin, and grabbing the lien, she left Weiss in a rush of petals. 

The front of the diner was busy, and beyond some old, scuffed-up doors, Ruby could spy the kitchen. A tired looking waitress was the only person managing the customers, it seemed, and she was so busy she barely had time to answer Ruby's smile with one of her own before running an armful of plates out to another booth. 

There were half a dozen loud hunters seated at the counter, some of them commenting on news segment playing on the screen bolted to the wall. Others were recounting some of that day's border patrol near-misses with a cocky enthusiasm that brought Sun to Ruby's mind. 

_Or Neptune,_ her brain piped up, unhelpfully bringing her right back to Weiss' only serious interest in _anyone_ so far. 

Miserable, she wondered if Neptune would have gone in for a kiss back at the shop, to hell with the consequences. But then, he didn't have a years-long partnership to worry about losing, did he? He was a great guy, and Ruby really liked talking to him about weapons design and engineering... but thinking about him and Weiss and this whole mess of feelings was just a bad idea she constantly found herself falling into. 

Ruby sighed, grabbing a menu and eager to give herself a distraction. By the time she placed the order with the waitress at the counter and paid upfront--as Weiss had seemed to be hinting was the right thing to do in Mantle--she was no longer thinking about Neptune and his confidence in making every move Ruby wished she could. 

Pocketing the change, she looked back to Weiss--before she practically did a double-take at the blond man suddenly chatting to her partner. Scruffy beard, gold eyes, thick accent--

 _Wait, Auret?_ Ruby asked herself, blinking. He was the last person she'd expected to see today, and as for Weiss, Ruby could practically see her bristling more with every word, absolutely about to tear Auret a new one. 

He'd seemed like a nice enough guy yesterday, and fully aware of how prickly her partner could be, Ruby whipped back to intervene. 

"--she's a far nicer person than I am." Weiss' words hid a knife, and given the way she crackled with anger, she hadn't yet noticed Ruby's return. 

"Don't doubt that for a moment, Schnee." Auret smiled down at Weiss, wide and crooked, before lifting his gaze to nod to Ruby. "Hey there! Ruby! Fancy meeting you both in a little place like this. Really is a small world, isn't it?"

Ruby's gaze remained on Weiss, who'd gone incredibly still. Suddenly, she found herself uncertain. 

"Yeah. I guess it is," Ruby said, forcing a smile of her own, but as she shifted to meet his gaze properly, she caught sight of the the revolver stowed at his hip, ornately etched, the holster barely concealing elemental Dust chambers as elegant as Myrtenaster's. He hadn't been wearing anything like that yesterday. "Wait, you're a huntsman?"

" _Ex,_ " Auret clarified, resting his hand on his hip. His smile was still easy, still disarming, but given the way Weiss' scowl had only deepened, Ruby wasn't sure it was all that effective. "Ain't got the time these days, what with the shop to tend."

"You're a storeboy?" Weiss broke in, her tone derisive. 

Auret laughed--a dry, single note. "Store _owner_ , as it were. Gotta pay the bills somehow." 

"Guess so," Ruby replied, looking back down to Weiss again, her mind racing with questions. Unbidden, Weiss' words about Vanta ghosted to the forefront of her mind--there was just so much she didn't know. Hesitating, Ruby wet her lips as she tried, "What were you guys talking about?"

Weiss cast her a sharp look, before her gaze flickered back to Auret. "How he was just leaving."

"Right." Auret's tone was amused, but there was a coolness to his amber eyes as he met Weiss' stare without flinching. His smile was back in place as he turned to Ruby, however. "Come by the shop sometime, if you're convinced you're gonna take on the case. Might have a few insights on things you're not exactly gonna get from Scherwiz."

"I'm sure." Weiss' words were clipped. 

Auret nodded, clapping his gloved hands together with a note of finality. "Been a real pleasure. See you 'round, Ruby. Schnee."

Ruby managed a smile for him, watching him make his slow way out the diner's front door and into the storm only just starting up outside. Even without looking, she could feel the tension rolling off Weiss in waves, but neither of them dared breathe a word until the door swung shut behind him. 

Ruby's smile faltered, and as she slid back into the booth across from Weiss, she demanded with a hiss, "What the heck was that, Weiss?"

"You didn't tell me you met _Auret Whittens_ yesterday!" Weiss snapped back, her voice low and harsh, her anger not having eased in the slightest. 

"That name literally means nothing to me!" Ruby exclaimed, throwing up her hands as she let her frustration bubble to the surface. The awfulness of the hours spent at the morgue had really worn her thin. "I don't _just know_ this stuff like you do!"

Weiss hesitated, looking taken aback by Ruby's anger, and for one long moment Ruby was afraid she was going to deflect the topic entirely. 

"He's one of _Vanta's_ original team." Weiss' voice was low and tight, and Ruby's frown cleared immediately at the name. 

"Wait, what?" _Auret_ had been on a team with _Vanta_? Ruby looked back to the door out which he'd vanished, into the pouring rain beyond, her thoughts racing. She hadn't felt even a stirring of aura, yesterday or today--maybe that was because he was retired. "Why isn't he with her, then?"

"Word is, they weren't exactly on good terms when Vanta took over Mantle's hunter operations three years ago." Weiss frowned, her blue eyes distant as she recalled details from whatever memo or intel she'd been given. "Team VSTA... fractured rather impressively when one of their teammates died, back in the beginning of the fight with Salem."

Ruby's mind flashed, filling with choking, too-sharp memories of Pyrrha, Penny, and the catastrophic fall of the first of Remnant's four kingdoms. While Penny's AI had eventually been backed up from a prior version, the night Ruby saw one of her very best friends reduced to pieces... it would never really leave her.

And would there ever come a time Ruby didn't feel guilt for not making it to Pyrrha?

"The files I've read say Vanta closed the Mantle border at... a great cost," Weiss continued, and despite the quietness of her words, Ruby heard every syllable. "Whittens never forgave her. And he never forgave Atlas for leaving Mantle to burn."

Ruby exhaled, shaky. "Oh. Yeah, I... guess." 

She crossed her arms, grasping her forearms so tightly her joints ached, unable to figure out what she was meant to say to _any_ of that. She'd somehow found a way to keep moving forward--others, like Auret it seemed, hadn't. As much as Yang would be upset at her for even entertaining these thoughts again, Ruby couldn't help but wonder. Was that also something that could be laid at her feet? 

"I didn't expect him to be still in Mantle," Weiss said, sighing, and she looked down at the table. "Or that he'd be so well informed." 

Ruby swallowed, her throat dry. "Maybe he's still friends with Vanta, after all?"

"Maybe." Weiss didn't look like she believed it. 

They were both silent for a long time, and unhappy, Ruby traced the scratches and divots in the diner table with the tip of her finger. The easy dynamic between them was strained again--she knew from way too much experience that Weiss was struggling to stay out of her head, struggling not to over-analyse her encounter with Auret. 

Despite her own twisting guilt, the nightmares and regrets that were never really going to leave her be, Ruby wanted to ask after it. Each time she thought she summoned the will to do so, however, the words seemed to turn to ash in her mouth. Finally, the waitress brought over the coffee, and it was the distraction Ruby had been so desperate to find. 

As Weiss failed to react, Ruby cleared her throat. 

"Oh, uh, I hope this is okay." Hesitant, Ruby pushed Weiss' hot mug across the table, letting it rest against the gloved back of Weiss' hand. Her own lay forgotten at her elbow. "Food's on the way!"

After a moment, Weiss seemed to come back to herself, shaking her head slightly as she met Ruby's eyes. 

"Thanks." Weiss lifted the mug to her lips, taking a tiny sip of the black brew. She exhaled, maybe a laugh and maybe a sigh, but before Ruby could wonder, she said, "Better than last time, I concede."

Suppressing a shaky laugh, Ruby ran a nervous hand through her hair. "Way to set the bar super low. _Really_ reassuring."

"I'm just trying to be honest." Weiss set the mug back down onto the table, her smile small but there all the same. "I mean, I'd hardly say it's of a high standard, but..."

"But you'll accept it gracefully?" Ruby finished, ducking her head with her own smile, finally turning her attention to her own mug. 

Weiss snorted. "I never promised _grace._ "

Adding heaped spoons of sugar to her own coffee, Ruby countered, too quickly and too eagerly falling into old patterns of friendship, "I thought you always said it was 'implied by your name'?"

"My name means many different things to many different people," Weiss said with a sigh, and belatedly, Ruby realised she'd blundered onto a landmine. 

"I didn't mean..." Ruby swallowed, alarm twisting her stomach into knots. Desperate to smooth the situation, she blurted, "I was joking, I swear! I'm sorry, Weiss."

"Don't be." Weiss didn't sound angry, just... tired. "It's the truth."

Ruby fidgeted with her mug, unhappy, but she clamped down on any more fumbling attempts at cheering her partner up because she'd inadvertently make _everything_ worse. Weiss didn't seem inclined to continue on the topic, but even when the food finally arrived, Weiss was silent. 

Staring morosely down at the massive stack of syrup-drenched pancakes she'd ordered, Ruby had kind of hoped for a dry remark about not eating dinner, but Weiss merely pushed some fried tomatoes around on her plate with her fork, her chin in her hand. 

Vanta's words rolled around in the front of Ruby's mind again, insistent and repetitive, and who knew _what_ Weiss and Auret had been talking about before Ruby had joined them. 

Weiss' quietness and distance--she'd retreated back to both, just when Ruby had been sure they were making progress. 

"This sucks." 

Weiss looked up from her absent study of her food, frowning. "What do you mean?"

"You're upset, Weiss, and I'm not really sure _this_ is any better than you lashing out!" Ruby set her jaw, nervous and defiant and god she hoped Weiss wasn't going to decide 'lashing out' was the right course after all. "I just want to help."

Weiss set her fork down, her lips pressed in a thin, unhappy line. "It's nothing you can help with, Ruby."

"Why not? I mean, are you worried about that? That everything is about your dad? It's not!" Ruby said, and as Weiss opened her mouth, probably to argue the point, she leaned forward, her voice fierce. "You aren't one of my best friends _ever_ because of your last name. At all!"

Ruby hadn't even known Weiss' last name other than a vague notion of the SDC's total monopoly on all things Dust, and even then she hadn't exactly clicked that there would be a whole family legacy... _thing_ behind it. 

"I'd hope not, considering how many times I've saved you from breaking your neck. You'd be entirely lost without me, at this point," Weiss told her, but her smile was fake and that was _worse_ than a glare. 

Ruby's heart sank--just how many of today's smiles hadn't been real? _Probably at least as many as mine,_ she realised, her shoulders sagging for a moment. 

"I mean it," Ruby said, toying with the sleeve of her jacket, her mind flickering back over that moment in the shop, the nearly-kiss. But way more important than all that, how much Weiss had come to mean to her over the years. _I like you. I really, really like you, so much it hurts and I..._

The words seized up in her throat, and again, she couldn't bring herself to say it. She couldn't put everything she felt on the line, to fly or fall as they would. There was too much to lose, and she was so terrified of losing this. 

Instead, she cracked a weak smile. "I'm really lucky to have you as my best friend, Weiss. Please let me help."

"Ruby--" Weiss started, but she cut off as a flicker of white on the television screen at the front of diner caught her attention. She froze. 

Alarm spiking in her stomach, Ruby tracked her gaze, recognising Jacques Schnee's image immediately. He was smiling, because of course he was, meeting with some school children and teachers--as though anyone at all should let him near _any_ kids. The scene transitioned to a press conference, Jacques' white suit sharp and pristine, and he was surrounded by aides and executives. 

Ruby couldn't catch his words, but she was able to pick out the caption scrolling across the screen as he talked. _'Troubled SDC CEO promises sizeable donations for schools affected by the Crisis'_. Across the table, Weiss bled tension, her gaze locked on the screen--and then it somehow clicked in Ruby's head. 

_Working with Winter, a year of paperwork, and when Weiss finally comes back, she's miserable?_

"It's about your family. Isn't it?" Ruby asked, her voice soft, and it felt as though she'd failed Weiss in some pivotal, indescribable way. She watched more footage of Jacques visiting the slowly-recovering areas of Atlas, those worst hit by Salem's forces, guilt twisting like a knife in her stomach. 

All too vividly, Ruby remembered leaving a note for Weiss and Blake each, before slipping from the military base with Yang under the cover of darkness. She remembered being out of it, too caught up in grief and trauma, asking questions of herself she wasn't sure she could handle answers to. 

It was that way for a really, really long time. 

Ruby had needed those months to refigure out her life. But she also hadn't expected Weiss would go back to _Jacques_ , after everything he'd put her through! The fire started up in the pit of Ruby's stomach, burning even hotter than it had during their talk about Vanta and Atlesian power games. 

"He's disowned me, this time."

It was so quiet Ruby almost missed it, buried beneath the ambient noise of chatter and eating throughout the diner. 

"Your dad?" Ruby's eyebrows rose, and Weiss frowned at her. 'Dad' was probably not the right word, and she ducked her head, uncertain. "Hadn't he already done that? The first time you left home?"

"Privately declaring me no longer heiress is not the same as lodging the correct documentation with the correct authorities." Weiss looked down to her plate of food, her mouth twisting. "It's also different to actually disowning me."

Ruby paused, trying to line up the pieces in her head to figure out what it all meant. Hesitantly, she tried, "He's... cut you off?"

"Entirely. I haven't needed to see him for the better part of six months, so I suppose it has its benefits." Weiss reached down to take hold of her coffee mug, taking a sip. Sighing, she added, "He's... not been happy with me."

"That's... that's good, isn't it?" Ruby looked to the side, unsure what to say--or even if there was anything she _could_ say. Weiss was a little right--Ruby had no idea how to deal with someone like Jacques, other than vehemently opposing his every viewpoint and messed-up action. 

She certainly had no real reference in dealing with the twisted relationship Weiss had with him--after all, Taiyang had always given his best, even when he'd struggled, and she'd been young when Summer had died. 

All Ruby could really do was encourage Weiss to cut the toxic relationship off--and somehow, that had to be enough. 

Looking back to Weiss, she said, "The more distance between you both, the better."

"When he's the CEO of the biggest company on Remnant, I'm not sure that's possible," Weiss told her, bitter and tense, crossing her arms over her chest as she glanced over to the screen once more. 

"He's also a huge jerk and you don't deserve that!" Ruby reached across the table on impulse, prying one of Weiss' hands from her arms and grasping it in her own. Weiss' gaze flickered down to their hands, just momentary, but she didn't pull away. "When you're in the middle of a Grimm infested swamp out in northern Anima, the SDC is the last thing _anyone_ is gonna think about."

Weiss scowled. "And in the middle of Mantle, it's everything anyone who looks at me can _see._ "

"Well... after, then. After we're done in Mantle." Ruby flashed her a smile, wishing she felt as confident as she hoped she looked. She wasn't sure Weiss was going to buy it, but she could try. "Come with me and Yang, and maybe even Blake! Team RWBY together, right? What do you say?"

"Are you serious?"

"One hundred percent!" Ruby told her, nodding. Squeezing Weiss' hand encouragingly, she said, "It can be rough and gross and there are some really bad things going on out there, but..."

 _They're not nearly as bad as Jacques,_ she added, silently, but she didn't dare voice it. 

Weiss looked far too taken aback by the offer, and for the life of her, Ruby couldn't understand _why_. Didn't she believe the team would be behind her, completely and entirely? They had her back against Jacques--they had her back in anything! What had happened during the past year, that would make her doubt that?

"I'd... like that," Weiss allowed with a soft sigh, her voice low, but this time Ruby was certain her smile was genuine. "I hope I can." 

Ruby whooped, far too loud for even this cafe, and she ducked her head as several other customers looked across at her. 

"This is gonna be _awesome,_ " she told Weiss, and maybe it was a little selfish, but... If Weiss was going to stay with them after Mantle, it was another thing she had to look forward to. 

Another thing to hold onto, even with Lawson's horrible injuries and the troubling presence of blood magic and ichor. 

A part of her did still wonder--what exactly had Weiss been doing with _Winter,_ if Jacques had disowned her over six months ago? Given that Weiss had only just started smiling again, however, Ruby didn't really want to push her luck too far and spoil the mood. 

Then, Ruby had another thought, and she tilted her head, confused. "Wait. If you're cut off, how'd you pay for everything?"

Weiss only rolled her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Insert comment about glacial pacing and inability to adequately self-edit. Ultimately I'm writing for me, after all! And this is the content I like to see. ;D
> 
> White Rose nerds being entirely too gay for one another.


	6. Family Matters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team RWBY consolidate their leads and come up with a plan of attack. Yang and Blake's conflict only escalates, and it turns out Weiss isn't the only Schnee in town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *deep breath*
> 
> And here. we. go.

Ruby's semblance was red-electric in her veins as she hit the ground running, the world reduced to the thunder of her pulse in her ears, the rasp of her breath, the roll and crack of lightning overhead as it lit up the night sky above them. The rain plastered her hair in her eyes as she banked hard to make the final turn up their street, her boots skidding in the treacherous mix of grit, oil and water on the road. 

The freezing air burned in her lungs as she scrambled to right herself, and out of the corner of her eye, through the near-blinding splatter of the rain, Ruby caught the tell-tale white glow of glyphs. Her breath caught, ragged and desperate, and she drew deeper on her semblance until it thrilled in her blood, the smell of roses drowning out the rain. 

Ruby propelled herself in a headlong sprint up the deserted street, the world collapsing down to her goal alone--the door of their apartment, hazy through the storm. Her teeth bared in a grin. Just one final push--

Hindered by the weather, however, Ruby only beat Weiss to the finish-line by just a fraction of a second. Unfortunately, the effort of stopping was just a _little_ greater than she'd accounted for, her boots skidding again in the mud, her momentum sending her flying face-first into the scorched and cracked brickwork at the side of the building.

Despite the way her aura crackled jarringly in her ears as she rebounded hard enough to see stars, Ruby began to laugh, breathless and shivery and _elated_.

"Oh my god," she gasped out between giggles. She sagged against the wet bricks, her head tilted back, her eyes drifting closed as rain poured down her face. She could smell the sharp ozone of Weiss' glyphs, even over the rain and the scent of roses, and cracking her eyes open, she grinned down at her partner. "You're so much _faster_ than I remember! Have you been holding out on me?" 

"Flattery," Weiss accused her, wiping her soaking bangs back from her face and looking just as drowned as Ruby felt. She was still breathless from her own efforts at the race, but Ruby caught the pleased curl of her lips at the compliment. 

Ruby laughed, unsteady and delighted, her own smile coming easily in return as she cuffed Weiss' shoulder, exhaused. "Gotta give credit where credit's due! So does this one count as winning a footrace you _did_ agree to?"

Weiss squinted up at her, seeming confused for a moment, before it clicked and she rolled her eyes in disgust. "Can we put the bragging on hold until we get out of this weather, perhaps?"

Ruby offered her a happy, wordless nod, dragging the apartment key out of her hoodie's pocket and moving to fumble with the lock, but her attention kept drifting back toward Weiss, _always_ toward Weiss. The dull roar of the torrential rain against the pavement, the smell of the storm, the crack of lightning overhead--it should have been enough to drown out the rasp and catch of Weiss' breath, the scent of her glyphs, the lingering traces of her perfume--but it wasn't. 

Ruby swallowed, her attempts at getting the lock to comply faltering, her thoughts still fuzzy and snared on Weiss. She wanted nothing more than to lean across, take Weiss' face in her hands, taste both the laughter and the rain on her lips, hear the sweetness of her voice as it caught and grew breathy--

"Ruby?" Weiss asked, snapping her daze. Ruby blinked across at her, shivering. She looked... worried?

Ruby blinked again, more slowly this time, and she stared down at the lock, the heat in her fleeing with an abruptness that left her hollow. "Sorry. Just--just a little tired, I think."

The excuse sucked, but it was all Ruby had. 

Shaking her head, Ruby finally-- _finally_ \--got the finicky lock to cooperate. Despite the way her face was practically numb from the cold, she still managed a victorious grin, holding the door open for Weiss with a flourish that had seemed way cooler in her head. 

Weiss didn't argue even if she did sigh, slipping by Ruby and into the warm apartment beyond. Ruby pulled the door shut behind them, following Weiss down the passageway and flicking the excess rain from her skin with a groan, Based on the vague smell of burning dust pervading the entire apartment, the old space heater in the living area had to have been running full-blast for _hours_ , and thanks to the rain, the apartment now had the added charm of smelling vaguely damp on top of everything else. Above her, the dimming lights flickered dangerously, thunder rolling in the skies outside. 

Now that she was safely home, Ruby could admit there might be some truth to the white lie she'd offered Weiss--the day had been surprisingly difficult in ways she'd been unprepared for. On the one hand, there was all the stuff with Weiss--and Ruby was delighted Weiss had finally talked to her, she really was--but she'd also spent the entire day on edge about her own feelings, watching her own reactions like a hawk, and then there'd been Lawson's body, and then...

 _Then the ichor,_ Ruby thought, her remaining good mood fading. She couldn't shake the memory of the black fluid she'd found in his injuries, too similar to old nightmares, drawing shadows from places she'd been sure she'd made her peace with. It never was that simple, though, was it? 

"I see Blake has been... keeping herself busy," Weiss said, the sound of her voice drawing Ruby back to the present. She'd hesitated at the threshold of the kitchen, her hand resting on her hip by Myrtenaster's hilt. 

Despite her weariness, Ruby's eyebrows rose, and admittedly, she was actually kind of worried what might have prompted that sort of comment. Closing the distance between them in a few quick strides, Ruby leaned over Weiss' shoulder, wordlessly examining Blake's...

 _Project?_ she tried with a wince, because what other word could you use to describe something like _that_?

The entire back wall of their living room had been transformed into a monument to whatever it was Blake and Yang had found in Vanta's casefile. Crime scene pictures and highlighted fragments of reports had been taped to the peeling wallpaper, not to mention the multiple maps of Mantle stuck with pins, scribbled notes and lines marked all over them--

"Oh, wow," Ruby finally breathed, tilting her head and squinting as she leaned her bags of new gear against the wall. "You're really not wrong."

Weiss twitched away, moving into the kitchen with purpose and finally shedding her soggy, grey coat and drawing the autopsy report from the coat's internal breast pocket. Ruby's gaze moved with her, irresistibly drawn. She'd hardly seen Weiss without the coat this trip, save for the few times she'd seen Weiss in her nightshirt instead.

Weiss' pale shirt was damp from the rain, even having been protected by the heavy coat, the fabric clinging to the suggestion of strength in her arms, her blue vest fitted snug and probably made of silk or something else super fancy. 

It was incredibly fortunate that she was busy looking at Blake's wall, because in all honesty, Ruby was far too weary to remember little things like discretion. 

"She's spent _hours_ on this macabre thing," Yang laughed from her spot on the couch, and it was only then that Ruby rallied enough to tear her gaze away from Weiss. Yang was sitting cross-legged on the threadbare three-seater, hogging the entire space with ease. She had some of the panels of her prosthetic arm open, and stacked on the coffee table in front of her, Ruby could see huge reams of paper. 

Catching Ruby's stare with a grin, Yang added, "I'm pretty sure she loves it more than she loves _me._ " 

"Only when you feel the need to make comments like that," Blake replied, from her spot in the armchair closest to the heater, buried in her sweaters and an extra shawl wrapped about her shoulders. "I'm very glad to hear you like it, however, macabre or not."

Ruby wouldn't go so far as to say she _liked_ it, given how gruelling her day had already been, but she wasn't about to admit it aloud. Instead, she looked back to Weiss, effortlessly passing the buck with a shrug. 

"Someone has to appreciate such... obvious effort," Weiss said, but only after fixing Ruby with a narrow, unappreciative stare. She slowly approached the wall, her expression thoughtful as she stripped her gloves from her hands and tucked them into her belt. 

Shivering, Ruby again pulled her gaze away from the faint flush of Weiss' skin against the drenched, pale fabric of her shirt, instead moving to peel off her own saturated hoodie and cloak. Groaning and rolling her shoulders, she draped them both across the remaining kitchen chairs to dry. 

As she went to grab a towel or two from the bathroom, she heard Yang say,

"I think Weiss might be a little uncomfortable it's not in colour-coded, annotated binders." 

"You forgot the alphabetised indexation," Weiss replied, her voice dry, and as Ruby returned with one towel about her shoulders and another tucked under her arm, she watched Weiss fix Yang with a _look_. "If you're going to tease me, please get the details correct."

"Oh, how silly of me," Yang said, tightening one of the screws in her arm, biting down on her tongue in concentration. "I promise, next time I'll try harder."

Ruby shot Weiss a reassuring smile, tossing her a dry towel before squeezing into the tiny spot next to Yang on the couch. She leaned closer, peering at the interior mechanisms of the prosthetic, then looked in askance at Yang, hopeful. 

It earned her a groan and the screwdriver both. 

"Fine, but Blake is going to be super upset if you tamper with the grip settings like last time. Just putting that out there." 

Ruby felt her face grow hot, and she rapped the plastic end of the screwdriver on the reinforced plating above Yang's elbow. "You're so gross. Isn't this like, corruption or something? I'm your adorable little sister!"

"And it's an absolute delight to watch you squawk and squirm." Yang reached across with her flesh hand, tugging the towel about Ruby's shoulders over her head and ruffling her wet hair with a cheerful laugh. "Right, Blake?"

"Not getting involved, Yang." Blake didn't look up from the huge pile of paper logs in her lap, her expression neutral despite the sparkle of amusement in her eyes. "And if I was, I'd be on Ruby's side--just so it's on the record."

Feeling entirely vindicated, Ruby brandished the screwdriver. "See?! Now quit it with the awful jokes before I decide to take leaderly countermeasures against you." 

"And to think I once believed you'd never abuse your power," Yang said, punctuating her words with a wounded sigh. She grabbed the screwdriver back, bopping Ruby on the forehead with the handle. "So, how was the morgue? I have a _great_ joke about that, you know."

"I bet it's an absolute _killer,_ too," Weiss remarked, her voice dry, not looking away from her consideration of Blake's wall. 

"I knew I could count on Weiss!" Yang laughed, before she paused, her expression delighted in a way that made Ruby want to bury her head in her hands as she added, "You could say it _knocks me dead_ every time! Hey? Am I right? Blake?"

"Dead people jokes? Weiss, I expected better." Blake leaned her elbow on the chair's armrest, her chin in the palm of her hand, her expression completely deadpan. "Yang, I'm appalled--and losing the will to live over here." 

_What am I gonna do with all of them?_ Ruby asked herself, biting down on the inside of her cheek to suppress her smile as she threw up her hands in mock despair. "Are we all done with the dead people puns or...?"

Over by the wall, Weiss was smirking, Yang was laughing so hard she was probably going to tear something important, Blake was hiding her smile behind a strategically placed sheaf of paper, and Ruby... 

She couldn't keep a straight face any longer, and with a giggle that came out more like a snort, she forced out in a rush, "'Cause I wouldn't want to keep beating the _dead Grimm..._ "

Yang whooped, and despite the insane pressures the day had brought, it was _good_ to spend these sort of moments with the weird family Team RWBY had formed over the years. Blake was right, of course--the jokes were completely awful, but they also made the carnage seem less horrifying, made it seem less like the darkness in the world outweighed the all the good. 

With Yang and Weiss and Blake, all of them together again, where they belonged--Ruby smiled, settling back against the couch as the persistent, low note of worry in her stomach began to loosen up again. Maybe things could be normal again, after all. 

"Okay but, jokes aside, what'd you guys learn?" Yang asked finally, pointing to Ruby with her screwdriver, her expression curious. "Anything interesting?"

Ruby looked to Weiss, who still had the copy of Doctor Cyan's report in her hands. She took the hint, passing it across to Yang without a word. 

Yang's eyes flickered as she scanned the report, her smile beginning to fade by the time she reached the end. 

"Looks like he was mauled by the same cluster-heck of Grimm as all the rest," Yang said, folding the report up to toss it toward Blake. "Meaning, it could be literally any Grimm plus _not_ Grimm. It's not making this whole identification thing easy, is it?" 

Blake offered her a shrug as she accepted the report, her golden eyes sharp, flicking to the back page to check the final assessment. "If it were that easy, this contract wouldn't still linger as it does. So what's the background on the new victim?"

"Jett Lawson and his team was meant to be in Mantle on a contract with the SDC." Ruby hesitated, frowning. That had been what Cyan had said, hadn't it? At Weiss' encouraging nod, she continued. "He was found in the warehouse his team had been holed up in, late yesterday. The rest of his team hasn't been found, and Cyan fears the worst."

"And where was the team's warehouse located?" Blake asked, her voice low. She set the report aside, rising to her feet and moving to stand at Weiss' side in front of the wall. She crossed her arms, her hands lost in her long sleeves, casting Weiss a look. "And the SDC warehouse?"

Weiss drew a red marker from her back pocket--Ruby bit back a smile at that, because of course she'd have one ready--drawing a bold cross over both the location of Lawson's warehouse and the main Mantle SDC depot. Blake tapped the first cross with the tip of her finger, her expression thoughtful.

"Isolated location in one of those abandoned districts near the border fence. Just like the others, though I'm not expecting different at this point."

Ruby watched Weiss crane her neck back, examining the other locations Blake had marked out on the map of Mantle. There were... a _lot._ How had Vanta kept all of this so quiet? 

"It appeared Lawson and team weren't exactly staying in their warehouse with _permission_ ," Weiss told Blake and Yang, her tone barely concealing a twist of contempt. "That probably had something to do with the inside operation they were running against the SDC."

Yang tilted her head, pausing in her maintenance of her arm. "They were targeting the SDC? Like, Dust theft?"

Ruby nodded, beginning to towel off her damp hair with a bit more vigour. "Judging by what Doctor Cyan said... they'd taken a _lot._ "

Yang's frown deepened, and she jabbed her screwdriver in Weiss' direction. "And there's no way this wasn't just reprisal from SDC hitmen?" 

Ruby snorted, tossing her towel in her lap. She kind of expected Weiss laugh too, to deny that theory as impossible, because _of course_ the SDC didn't have assassins on payroll-- 

"The Dust in their warehouse wasn't touched." Weiss shrugged a shoulder, her lip curling in dislike. "Don't rule it out, however. This may be simply an elaborate framing of a _innocent_ monster. The ligature marks and Dust burns indicate such."

Ruby swallowed. The fact that Weiss was giving _credit_ to the theory said some seriously terrifying things about the SDC--and the fact that Blake was nodding along with Weiss' assessment was even more chilling. She looked down at her towel, picking at the fibres. 

Assassins or not, there was something the theory would not--and could not--explain. 

"But... the Grimm-inflicted injuries. That's not really something you can replicate with weapons, and..." Ruby hesitated. Her fingers twisted in her towel. "And the ichor. Don't forget that."

Weiss' gaze flickered across to Ruby, then, her expression unreadable. "We don't know what that compound really is, Ruby."

Ruby met her gaze squarely, refusing to back down. She knew what she'd seen--there was no mistaking that ichor for anything else. "I'm almost positive we do."

Weiss exhaled, looking to the side, but she didn't argue the point.

Yang held up her hand, shaking her head as if she couldn't quite believe what she'd heard. "Wait. _Salem_ -ichor? Like, gross blood-magic-curse-of-humanity ichor? Stop me if I'm way off-base, here."

Weiss fixed Yang with a weary look, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she said, "The very same, if Ruby is correct."

"This is... significant." Blake's voice was soft, and she sighed as she grabbed her own marker from her chair, scribbling the word _ichor_ down on a spare sheet of paper and taping it to the wall amongst all the rest. Once she was done, she nodded. "Regardless, every other victim was in town for odd jobs and extended stays. A formal contract with the world's leading Dust supplier..." 

Ruby watched Blake's eyes flicker toward Weiss again, but Weiss didn't make a comment. Just like at the morgue--Ruby supposed that made a lot more sense now, considering what she'd been told about Weiss' status as non-person with the company this afternoon. 

Yang was nodding, however, looking across to Blake with a flash of a smile. "Sounds like you've got an idea cooking."

Blake nodded just the once, tapping the first cross Weiss had made on the map. "The location of Lawson's warehouse gives us a good starting point. I say we check that out in the morning--see if we can't find something the Mantle cops missed."

Weiss clicked her tongue. "I'd be truly shocked if we didn't, given the poor quality of the investigation thus far." 

Weiss and Blake shared a look, their mutual disgust for the quality of the prior investigation so obvious they might as well have walked down to the Mantle police precinct and lodged a formal complaint. 

Too exhausted to step blindly into that particular trap, Ruby sighed, rubbing at her face and instead turning her attention to Yang, "Was there anything else?" 

"Still sifting through the backgrounds of all the victims." Yang gestured to the piles of loose paper on the coffee table in front of them, then to the other set piled up on Blake's armchair. "It's slow going, and records are super sketchy at best--seems like the guy who was in charge before Vanta wasn't exactly all that keen on keeping his books up to date. There's not a whole lot to work with."

"Which leads me to _my_ concerns." Blake's voice was soft as she turned back to the rest of the team, and there was a dreadfully familiar tightness to her expression that set the alarm bells in Ruby's head to ringing. "There was a drastic change of investigation conduct when Vanta assumed leadership, it seems--in that investigative work was _actually_ being undertaken at all."

"That doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Hasn't this contract been out for years?" Ruby asked, running a hand back through her damp hair to push it back from her eyes. 

"Scherwiz 'inherited from her predecessor', after all," Weiss supplied, the dislike heavy in her voice. 

Ruby didn't miss the look Yang sent in Blake's direction at the comment, even if she couldn't quite place the meaning. 

Whatever it meant, Blake seemed content to ignore it as she said, "The most innocent reading of the situation seems to be that Vanta's the only one who has taken it seriously--which is why it's interesting that she _redacted_ records in her time."

Ruby paused, her eyebrows drawing together. "Wait, what?" 

Weiss waved a hand, both dismissive and derisive, her lip curled. "That file was meant to be all they had. It means that Vanta isn't giving us everything, no matter what she's tried to claim. So what was it she redacted?"

"The name of the last investigator hunter on the case. I'd have liked to talk with them, find out their thoughts, see what they'd tried." Blake sighed. She turned her gaze toward one of the crime scene photos, her expression weary. "If Vanta has gone to the trouble of redacting their name..."

Yang was nodding, her gaze sharpening as she gestured to the wall. "Could be they found something big--something that could have landed them in a whole world of trouble."

Blake shot a faint smile in Yang's direction. "Indeed."

"That suggests that someone in Mantle is invested in this contract _not_ being completed." Weiss looked back to the wall, her arms still crossed against her chest, casting an eye over the mass of information laid out before them. "The reward is substantial, but hardly worth the effort of sabotage." She clicked her tongue, disgusted. "I knew Scherwiz was bad news."

"We don't know that for sure, Weiss," Blake replied. 

While Ruby understood the reasons for Weiss' dislike of Vanta a little better, she was still incredibly glad Blake didn't buy into Weiss' scathing tone. 

"There's probably a really good reason for it," Ruby tried, offering Weiss a weak shrug. Not that she could really think of one, however. Looking around at her team, she found herself nodding. She supposed it was long past time to address the goliath in the room. "So, I guess that leaves just one thing. Are we gonna take this mission on?"

The apartment was silent. 

It was a fair question, and one Ruby was glad Vanta allowed them to ask of themselves. There was no getting around it--the stakes were real. Ruby didn't know much about whatever internal power struggles throughout Mantle hinted at sabotage to Weiss and Blake--but monsters of the Grimm variety, however? She knew those all too well. 

And what she'd seen in the morgue... Ruby knew what her own choice would be, but it had to be up to the team. 

Weiss was silent, but she'd looked away from her examination of the wall, her blue eyes distant. Blake was looking at Yang, and Yang... 

Yang closed the panel on her prosthetic arm with a snap. Leaning forward, her elbow propped against her knee, she said, "Seems to me like we've already got some leads to chew on. Lawson's warehouse, the SDC contract, and if we can wrangle a name from Scherwiz, the old investigator."

 _And the ichor,_ Ruby added, silent. If she was perfectly honest, that was the part that worried her the most. 

"That may be so, but Vanta wasn't simply trying to scare us off when she told us this case was dangerous." Blake's golden eyes were serious as she studied the rest of the team, and after a few moments, she exhaled. "I'm not going to beat around the bush. This contract gives me a really bad feeling." 

Weiss nodded, lifting her hand to gesture at the dozens of crime scenes marked on the map, her lips pressed into a tight, thin line. "This Grimm has gotten the better of a lot of people. Entire teams have died for this hunt--and it's still around, even years later. Whatever it really is, it's bad news."

Ruby sighed, deflating just a little. "Yeah. I know. It's okay if you guys don't want in. I get it."

Despite her attempt at false cheer, her words landed heavily, hanging in the damp apartment air. Outside, thunder rumbled, the front door creaking fitfully beneath the onslaught of the howling wind. 

Weiss broke the silence with a laugh, short and sharp . "Don't be absurd, Ruby. We've long accepted the risks going into this contract."

"Damn right." Yang grinned across at Weiss, punching her prosthetic fist into the palm of her other hand. "Nobody has ever said this line of work wasn't dangerous, even without Salem and her psychopaths breathing down our necks."

"And somebody has to end this," Blake added, casting Ruby a fond, sidelong look. She'd come a long way from the weary cynicism of their first year at Beacon, even if she still held a realist's point of view. "Right, Ruby?"

Ruby felt a prickle of pride, answering Blake's smile with one of her own. "Yeah. Somebody does. So it's agreed?"

She watched the rest of the team nod--despite the risks, despite the stakes, they were all in. Satisfied, Ruby pulled out her scroll, tapping out the affirmative for Vanta. 

It was just moments before she received a message back, and she held up the scroll for the others to read. 

_Somehow, I knew this would be your answer, Rose. Take care. - V_

###

It was hours before the rest of the team began to turn in for the night, and the whole time, it felt as though Weiss' scroll was burning a hole in her back pocket. She'd distracted herself as best she could, reluctant to slip away under the watchful eyes of her team, busying herself with small and mindless tasks.

After they'd all unanimously agreed to accept the Stalker contract, she'd taken the chance to peel off her rain-sodden clothes and boots, changing with no small relief into something dry. There hadn't been a whole lot she could do about her disaster zone hair without a shower and a good blow-dry, so conceding defeat, she'd simply braided it back. 

For the remainder of the time, she'd busied her hands with checking Myrtenaster's Dust deployment chambers, examining the tiny, etched runes down the length of the blade for imperfections or grime. She'd listened along to Ruby and Yang call their father in Patch--something that could be characterised rather accurately as a tornado of enthusiasm as they tried to bring him up to speed with all the latest decisions. 

While Weiss hadn't seen Blake outright call her parents, Weiss harboured no illusions that she wouldn't be in regular contact with them, either.

Weiss wasn't jealous, of course--nothing so pedestrian as that. She certainly didn't begrudge her teammates their less awful families. But it did rather forcefully remind her that she didn't have anyone in her life who would currently appreciate such a call. 

_Only an annoying little brother who apparently refuses to understand what rejecting a call actually means,_ Weiss noted, irritable, shrugging on one of her spare coats and pulling on a dry pair of boots. 

Yang and Blake preparing to go to bed, now, and given the obvious, bone-deep weariness in Ruby's face since they'd gotten back to the apartment, she wouldn't be far behind them. 

Weariness or not, however, Weiss could hear Ruby and Yang squabbling over space at the bathroom sink, thankfully distracted. It would be Weiss' best chance to get away, unnoticed, so she make the quiet call she needed to. Given how little she wished to say to Whitley, she very much doubted it would be a long one. 

Sighing, her emotions steeled and her shoulders set, Weiss slipped out of the bedroom. 

"Hey, where are _you_ off to at this hour?" 

Weiss froze, looking over her shoulder, a dozen curses running through her mind. Yang was craning out from the bathroom, her expression curious, Ruby still caught in a rough headlock at Yang's hip. A foamy toothbrush stuck out the side of Ruby's mouth, but even so, she looked surprised. 

All of a sudden, Weiss couldn't help but feel like she'd managed to betray the trust her partner had put in her today. 

"I need to make a quick call, so I'm going for a walk." The truth seemed adequate enough, for all that it tasted as bitter as a lie on her tongue. "I'll be back soon enough."

Yang looked like she wanted to press for more, her eyebrow raised. Before she could say anything further, however, Weiss retreated, darting through the kitchen and down the passageway to slip out into the freezing night outside. 

Mantle's streets, for the most part, were still empty. The fury of that afternoon's storm had eased, the rain slowing from an all-drenching flood to heavy, lazy drops less intended to drown the world. The air felt like ice against the bare skin of her face, and abruptly, she wished she'd thought to bring one of her scarves. The navy one was drying back in the kitchen, but there was that red scarf Ruby had gotten her--

Weiss crushed the thought, instead pulling on her slightly-damp leather gloves as she began to walk for the sheltered corner down the end of the block. It was not the time for sentimentality. It was time to act like a Schnee. 

Fishing her scroll out of her coat pocket and huddling deeper into her coat as the wind picked up, Weiss hit redial, absolutely prepared to tear her brother a new one for his awkward, unseemly persistence earlier. She'd seen the questions in Ruby's eyes when she'd rejected those repeated calls--how long before she realised the truth? That the _disownment_ was really the least of Weiss' worries? 

Her irritation faded as the call went without answer, replaced instead with an icy spike of worry, lancing down the length of her spine to bury itself in her stomach. She stared down at her scroll, her mouth twisting, a thousand guesses running through her head on why he might not have answered. 

There were innocent ones--perhaps he was at a dinner, with a contact, or even simply out of range, but they were far outweighed by the not-so-innocent ones. A part of her couldn't help but wonder if perhaps Jacques had finally tired of his cat and mouse games with his children. 

She swallowed, her mouth dry. Perhaps he'd started to make good on all his veiled threats. 

Before she could redial Whitley's number, however, her scroll buzzed, an encrypted message popping up on screen. She entered the agreed upon code as quickly as she could. 

_I hear the coffeeshop down the road has the best applecake in Solitas. I don't suppose you'd care for a slice?_

A summons, if she'd ever seen one. Weiss' jaw tightened reflexively, her mouth souring, and she looked back toward the apartment door. 

After a few moments, she exhaled, deep and weary. She supposed she had the time to play along for a while longer--if only for the pleasure of tearing Whitley a new one in person.

###

"Yang. What exactly are you doing?" Blake couldn't quite keep the harshness from touching her words as she stepped into the hallway, her arms crossed against her chest. She should have seen this coming--of course Yang wouldn't have dropped the matter.

Yang had frozen at the crack of her voice, caught in her rush to pull on her fleece-lined leather jacket and boots, her grey hood pulled up to both hide her bright gold hair and protect from the final throes of the storm. Her alarm quickly faded into stubbornness, however, even if she didn't lift her gaze to meet Blake's.

"Just going for a walk." Yang shrugged a shoulder, before continuing to tighten her bootlaces. Her voice was gruff, her casual tone feigned as she added, "That illegal, now?"

Blake wasn't about to fall for such a transparent lie--Yang knew _exactly_ what she was doing. The fact that her partner, her _girlfriend_ was brushing her off this way...

Blake's jaw clenched so hard it ached. "Funny timing, since Weiss just left on one, too."

Yang looked uncomfortable. "Well, why don't I join her? Don't want her wandering off and getting eaten by our monster, right?"

"Why are you insisting on being so obtuse about this? She clearly wanted privacy!"

Perhaps Blake had misspoken--it wasn't that Yang was being _obtuse._ In reality, Yang was one of the smartest people Blake knew, and not only for her emotional intelligence. It was that, for her own reasons, she was choosing to ignore the fallout with Weiss--fallout that Blake could not in good conscience simply stand back and spectate. 

Context was everything. In some cases, Yang would be right to push, but the matter was incredibly delicate.

"Blake..." Yang trailed off, slowly climbing to her feet with a groan. Her expression was apologetic, and she offered Blake a weak smile. "I'm not gonna go get in her face or anything like that, it's just a little reconnaissance--"

Blake wanted to strangle her well-meaning, _stubborn_ partner. "That's _worse_ , Yang! She's going to be really hurt if she finds you snooping around after her. You can't go behind her back like this!"

Yang's smile faltered at the edge to Blake's words, her eyes growing wide at the words "hurt" and "going behind her back". 

"Talking to her about all this upfront clearly isn't very high on your list of priorities!" Yang countered, her mouth growing tight. She looked to the side, her arms crossed, her flesh hand tightening over her metal bicep. "Blake, I know you trust her. _I_ trust her! But I also think it's a really bad idea for her to try to do everything alone. I've spent long enough picking up the pieces of me and you and _Ruby_ over the past few years to know how hard it is to try to glue together what breaks!"

Blake stared at her, her jaw clenching. This was _not_ about Yang--and it wasn't about Blake, either. 

"So you'd begrudge her time to work through it herself?"

"Just the blaze of glory of a breakdown!" Yang advanced a step, and Blake hated that she felt herself instinctively lock up. Yang seemed to notice it, because she didn't continue, lifting her hands, her expression softening. "We need her to be on her game, and if she's got something she needs to work over, that's something we owe it to her to help with."

"And if we can't help?" Blake asked, her voice low, suddenly far too aware of how easily their voices were carrying. Every Faunus in a half-mile radius could likely hear their argument. "What then?"

"I don't _know,_ Blake!" Yang threw her hands up, exasperated. "And I'm not _going_ to know until she comes clean--"

"Yang..." Ruby's voice was low, and Blake turned sharply, the hair prickling on the back of her neck, her secondary ears laid back flat. Ruby winced at the reaction, her eyes flickering to Blake apologetically for a moment, before her attention returned to Yang. "I think we should leave Weiss be."

By the time Blake looked back, any remaining anger in Yang's eyes, in the set of her stance, had snuffed out at just a handful of words from her sister. 

"Ruby, I'm sorry if we kept you awake," Yang murmured, her expression hesitant as she pulled her hood back. 

Blake exhaled, a fruitless attempt to ease the tension between her shoulders, before nodding. With a hint of chagrin in her words, she conceded, "We were kind of shouting..."

"Only because we care," Yang said, but her smile was gentle and reassuring as she closed the distance between herself and her sister, carefully brushing by Blake. Blake closed her eyes for just a moment, breathing deep of warmth and leather and gunpowder.

Her hands on each of Ruby's shoulders, Yang said, "Ruby, you know what happens when we try to take it all on ourselves. We _all_ know. We've all been there."

"Yeah." Ruby looked tired--more than Blake had ever seen her since the immediate hours after Salem's defeat. She sighed, returning Yang's hug for a moment as she continued, "But she and I did get to talk a little today, you know?"

Blake's eyebrows rose in surprise, a warning thrilling down the length of her spine as Yang released Ruby from her hold to simply sling an arm about her shoulders. Weiss and Ruby had talked? Just how _much_ had she shared with Ruby, then? 

Perhaps this battle with Yang wasn't worth fighting, after all. 

Yang seemed to read the question in Blake's expression, and nodding to herself, she asked Ruby, "So, what did she say?"

"Not... not a whole lot," Ruby admitted, shrugging her free shoulder, her eyes distant. "But she's been with her dad and the rest of her family for the past year. I think... it went really badly, since Weiss said she was formally disowned."

Yang drew back, staring at Ruby. "She went back, after everything _he_ put her through?"

Blake looked to the side, thoughtful. While the fight with Salem's forces had been dark, stressful, nigh-apocalyptic at times, it was both a blessing and a curse that not all of their demons were faced during the Crisis. Blake had been fortunate--with Yang's help, she was able to ensure Adam would never hurt anyone again, and with Sun's, she'd been able to help her parents regain control of the White Fang, to start the organisation afresh. 

Cinder, Emerald and Mercury, not to mention the rest of Salem's lieutenants, they'd all met their end too. Weiss' demons, however, were of a far different variety, a different sort of fight altogether, for all that much had started to come to the public's attention about the SDC's shady practices and corrupt dealings. 

From what Blake understood, the SDC was under quiet but crippling pressure, and that every day public sentiment toward the company was worsening. It was a fall from grace that was rightly deserved, but Jacques Schnee would not have been pleasant to deal with over the past year. 

Weiss' formal disownment was just official confirmation on what Blake had already guessed at, and judging by the open honesty in Ruby's expression, she wasn't holding anything back. 

That left Blake with only one conclusion--Weiss had deliberately omitted those further details, because the stirrings of retribution and political bloodshed Blake could read in the currents certainly didn't stop at "disowned heiress". 

Ruby ran a hand through her dark hair, offering Yang a smile that faded far too quickly. 

"I'm not gonna pretend I really get what's going on with her family, but..." Ruby trailed off, before she inhaled, deep and steadying. "Yang, I'm vouching for her."

Yang tightened her grasp about Ruby's shoulders, her frown one of deep concern. "You're sure?"

Ruby nodded, her smile tired but certain all the same.

Yang sighed, tipping her head back to look at the roof for just a moment. "Yeah, okay. I'll drop it for now. I'm off to bed. You should get some shut-eye too, Ruby."

She released Ruby's shoulders with one final, reassuring squeeze, giving her sister a smile before she trudged back toward the bedroom. Blake watched her go, wavering and uncertain, before she looked back to where Ruby lingered in the doorway. 

After a few quiet moments, Blake sighed. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah. Today's just taken a lot out of me." Ruby's smile flickered, the effort of keeping up appearances taking their toll. "Tomorrow is another day, right?"

Blake just looked at Ruby, studying her, taking in everything about her friend--from the weary slump to her shoulders beneath her old red hoodie-jacket, to the way her attention seemed to cost her far more than normal. 

She reached out, setting a gentle hand on Ruby's shoulder, telling her quietly, "Don't forget to look after yourself." 

Ruby nodded, because of course she would, but Blake couldn't help the persistent thread of worry tugging at her stomach. It couldn't have been easy for Ruby to go against Yang--Ruby idolised Yang, that was clear even years on from their first rough days at Beacon. Ruby had grown a lot since then, of course, and the more Blake considered it, the more apparent it became.

Still, she felt compelled to support this, even quietly. 

"I think Weiss would thank you, if she knew."

"I just hope I'm making the right call for once." Ruby huffed a laugh then, the tilt of her lips crooked as she met Blake's eyes. "Thanks. G'night, Blake."

Blake said no more, smiling as she watched Ruby vanish into the bedroom she was sharing with Weiss, before sighing and looking back to the door to her own room, still standing slightly ajar. Her smile faded. She'd known after their argument, just hours earlier, that Yang would be reluctant to drop the matter--she'd just not expected things to escalate so quickly.

Resettling her shoulders and refusing to allow herself to fall into old habits of evasion, Blake pushed the bedroom door open fully, studying the dark shadow of her girlfriend on the bed. She tilted her head, listening carefully to the quiet draw of Yang's breathing in the darkness. 

Yang didn't seem to be asleep--just silent. Blake tried not to read too far into that, a twist of worry starting up in the pit of her stomach. Perhaps Yang was angry, even if such a thing made no objective amount of sense. Blake shrugged out of her remaining sweaters, piling them on top of where Yang had dumped her jacket and boots, before crawling into bed and curling into Yang's side in defiance of those baseless, phantom worries. 

Yang drew a breath, rolling over to face Blake, her metal arm a cool touch to Blake's hip. It was still a long few moments before Yang spoke.

"She went back to _Jacques,_ " Yang finally said, her confusion and worry apparent in every word. Her metal fingers shifted, curling into the dark fabric of Blake's thermal night shirt, absent. "How am I supposed to be okay with just letting her deal with this on her own? It's like leaving her in a den of beowolves with bait tied around her neck."

Blake inhaled, bumping her head under Yang's chin, breathing deep into the hollow of her throat. "Nothing about her situation has changed in the past day."

"Yeah." Yang's voice was tight, and she sighed against the top of Blake's head, her grasp of Blake's shirt tightening. "That's what sucks so bad. She's supposedly spent the whole last year with them again and I didn't even figure it out. I should have taken her with us, somehow. After hearing her talk about working with Winter and seeing..."

Blake waited for Yang to process her thoughts, her feelings. Careful, she ran her hand up the length of Yang's metal arm, her touch lingering and gentle against the scar tissue just above the dock. 

"I blame myself, okay?"

Blake paused, listening to the darkness, to the hint of roughness to Yang's breathing, before she pressed the flat of her hand against Yang's cheek. "Weiss makes her own choices, Yang. Whether we agree with them, or not."

It rang true for both herself and Yang this time, too. They didn't need to agree on this--but they did need to come to an understanding. That had been something her relationship with Adam had always lacked, and one her relationship with Yang had always exemplified. 

Understanding, and being understood. 

"Yeah," Yang said, leaning her cheek into the palm of Blake's hand, her metal hand resting over Blake's in a gentle clasp. "Sorry. For being too stubborn about this. I know you're worried about her, too. And I don't want to make you feel like you can't trust me. But... what's the worst thing you think will happen, if Weiss talks about what's going on?"

Blake studied Yang's face in the darkness, her keen eyes able to pick out the small smile on Yang's lips. Yang needed something--some sort of assurance outside of a vague "Weiss can handle it". A reason outside of "because secrets". That wasn't too much to ask for. 

Blake sighed into Yang's throat, threading her fingers through the warm, curling hair at the nape of Yang's neck. "The worst that could happen? Everything comes crashing down."

Yang stilled, but she didn't draw away. Her voice was cautious as she said, "That a hint?"

Blake closed her eyes. "A suspicion. That's all."

After a few moments, she felt the tension in Yang's body loosen, felt Yang press a kiss the top of her head. "Like I said, I'm gonna drop it. But we might not get the luxury of letting this go in the future, if it's as bad as you seem to think. Stuff like this has a funny way of affecting all of us." 

Yang hardly needed to explain--she was referring to Adam, long-dead, but still very much a part of Blake. And very much a part of Yang, who'd paid an unfair price because Blake hadn't had the courage to talk. Hindsight was twenty-twenty, but she'd always wonder if things would have gone differently if Yang had known more about Adam before the Fall of Beacon. 

"I know." Blake drew back, shifting to press her lips to Yang's, brushing her fingers through bangs. She owed so much to Yang. "I know Ruby says it's under control, but I'll talk to Weiss. Tomorrow."

Yang smiled at her in the dark, edging forward to capture Blake's mouth in a warm, lingering kiss. Blake drew her closer, a thrill starting up in her blood at the dart of Yang's tongue against the curve of her lower lip. She allowed her shiver to touch her voice as she hummed beneath her breath, satisfied, only pulling back to straddle Yang's hips. Her fingertips strayed beneath Yang's tank top, the fire starting up in her stomach urged on by the delicious, answering catch in Yang's sigh. 

Blake hesitated a moment to smile, tucking her hair behind her ears before dipping down to trail her lips and tongue across Yang's collarbone. She loved Yang, with all of her heart--and she wanted make sure the depths of how she felt was made entirely clear tonight.

###

The coffeeshop was shuttered and dark, the side of the building scrawled with anti-Atlas slogans and graffiti, the exposed brickwork plastered with posters growing soggy and peeling from the storm. For the space of a moment, Weiss worried that there'd been an additional layer of code to Whitley's message, that they were to have met another location entirely, but then she spied a man in a white suit lingering in the alley to the side of the building.

The man's arms were crossed against his chest, and as she approached, Weiss caught the outline of his weapon holster against his ribs, the stirring of aura at the edge of her awareness growing sharper. 

In no mood for games, Weiss lifted her chin, staring the hired muscle down as she drew to a stop.

"My brother wished to see me," she said, her words ice and steel in the freezing air, more a statement than a question. As the man simply continued to look her over from behind those ridiculous mirrored aviators, she clicked her tongue. "I won't ask twice."

The man sighed, rapping on the roller door behind him with his gloved knuckles--a deliberate pattern, another code, the beats of an old nursery rhyme starting up in the back of Weiss' mind. After a few moments, another dressed-up thug in white lifted the roller door, light spilling out into the alleyway. 

Without a word exchanged, Weiss slipped through the gap and into the dry warmth of the coffeeshop, only pausing to brush away the stray droplets of rain from her coat. Only when she was satisfied did she roll her shoulders, exhaling low and deep and steadying. 

She didn't bother asking where her brother was--she knew him well enough to make a guess. 

The owner of this place was probably on Whitley's payroll, Weiss noted, pushing her way out of the back room and into the service area, giving the place a careful once-over. It was worth noting for the future--for use, just as much as to avoid. 

Whitley Schnee himself was seated exactly where Weiss expected, holed up in one of the coffeeshop's more comfortable spots, his chair dragged up to the wood-fed fireplace at the rear of the room. There was a pot of coffee on the table to his right, and he didn't spare her a glance as she approached, sipping at the mug between his hands. 

An untouched plate of applecake sat by his elbow, Weiss noted, her jaw growing tight. Klein had often made the dessert for them as children, back when Jacques would come home, furious and seething about anything from the White Fang's latest threats to a particularly stubborn competitor. 

Weiss had always had more than a bit of her father's temper--if only she'd inherited even half of his political acumen. 

"Your insistence on theatricality continues to bore me, Whitley," she told him, forgoing the grace of a greeting and instead going straight for the metaphorical knife. 

She needn't have wasted the effort, and he didn't bother gracing her with his attention until she'd finally made it, seething, to his side. 

"Weiss. Dearest sister," Whitley said, leaning back on his elbow, his chin settling in the palm of his hand. For all the warmth of the fireplace, however, he hadn't seen fit to remove either his white duster or gloves. He gestured smoothly to the empty chair at his right. "Do take a seat."

She didn't, studying him, the back of her neck prickling. While Weiss had inherited much of Jacques' quick anger, Whitley had instead received sly venom, the sharp twist of his tone rendering even his most honest words to appear lies. Despite their conflicts, an ancient history of jealousy, entitlement and sabotage, Weiss conceded Whitley loved both herself and Winter--as much as he was able. 

Love didn't bind them together, however. For herself, for Whitley, even for Winter, the personality politics of their rivalries were rendered meaningless in the face of a uniting, common enemy--their father. 

"Mantle," Weiss said, instead, throwing the word down like a challenge between them. She watched his expression, searching for a tell. "It's a bit outside your sphere of influence, isn't it?"

He shrugged a single, uncaring shoulder, his smile scalpel-sharp and thin. "You weren't answering your scroll. I was _worried._ "

For all the convenience of their current alliance, Weiss very much doubted _that_ particular claim. 

"Worried for your own ambitions, perhaps. 'Too risky to contact', you'd told me." Weiss looked him up and down, derisive. "And yet here you are, turning up in Mantle in the middle of the night. That's not the least bit suspicious, is it?"

Whitley's mask of a smile didn't so much as flicker beneath her contempt, and he took a sip of his coffee, unruffled. "Precautions have been taken--which is far more than can be said for you, Weiss."

He was baiting her, Weiss could recognise that far too easily. Her younger brother had always had a way of digging under her skin, drawing out the worst sort of anger and resentment and suspicion until her head _spun._

"You were very explicitly told not to call _at all!"_ she snarled, her hands curling into fists, that raw, hot anger bubbling up through her iron grasp before she could think to clamp back down on it. She'd worked _so hard_ to bury it since reuniting with Team RWBY, even since the disaster of a confrontation with Vanta this morning. For what? "I have no interest in sitting around waiting for _somebody_ to pull the trigger--"

"Three days," Whitley cut in, his words cool and clipped. He looked up at her, that infuriating, smug smile of his finally fading away. 

Weiss' anger froze, her heart pounding in her ears, and for the space of a few seconds, she felt as though she'd been winded. _Three days,_ she echoed, silent, desperately trying to make those words seem real. 

Finally rallying enough to take a quiet, unsteady breath, Weiss stared into the amber roar of the fireplace. She felt entirely too light-headed as she asked, her voice soft, "Is that deadline from Jacques, Winter or the corruption watchdog?" 

"Does it matter?"

" _Obviously._ " Weiss closed her eyes, just for a moment, trying to draw on reserves of strength she'd been so rapidly depleting over the past few months. Without anger to fuel her, however, she'd found herself with so little to spare. 

Whitley looked back down to his mug of coffee, his mouth twisting and unhappy. "The watchdog, though I understand your confusion. All three have a propensity to demand arbitrary deadlines with little care for either of us." 

"Tell them to back off," Weiss told him, her jaw clenching tight. "We agreed to get them the undoctored files if they _allowed_ us." 

"And so far, our combined efforts have been for naught." Whitley leaned back in his chair, his expression bitter. His eyes were like ice as he looked Weiss up and down. "Our father hid his corruption well. Or rather, he's left quite enough crumbs to implicate _someone_."

Weiss bristled at the cold consideration, at the poison in his words--so very reminiscent of their father. It just reignited that old anger, that old drive she'd thought she'd exhausted. 

Perhaps, she realised at some level, that was the _point._

"I'm well aware of my position, Whitley." 

"I never believed I'd be thankful he hadn't bothered making my position as heir formal," Whitley said, his laugh both short and harsh. His smile was mocking as he continued to study her, unafraid of the flashpoint of her anger. "Otherwise, I'd be just as much a scapegoat as _you've_ allowed yourself to be."

Weiss' throat constricted--anger, disgust, _fear_. "You know how much of it is doctoring and lies!" 

"And without _proof_ of that, it's going to be your word against his--oh, and his army of executives, all of them just dying to swear on their mother's lives that you were there, right along with Jacques at every pivotal meeting."

Just as quickly as it had started up, Weiss' anger fled, and with it went all that remained of her energy. Mechanically, reeling and vague, she finally took the seat next to Whitley at the fire, leaning forward, her elbows on her knees, burying her face in her hands. Her gut twisted, knotting itself up in restless, hopeless fear. 

Whitley was right--and that was the very worst part. 

When Ruby and Yang had vanished overnight following Salem's fall, Weiss had felt... cast adrift. Team RWBY had given her a network of support, Salem's defeat had been her purpose, and protecting Ruby long enough to strike the final blow had been what years of training and work and desperation had all condensed down to. 

Team RWBY had split once again, and while Weiss had remained with Blake for some weeks, it had become clear that both of them needed more. They'd both needed purpose. 

With the SDC's business practices beginning to make themselves known to the public, Weiss' attention had turned back to her grandfather's company, twisted away from the intentions of a man she'd barely known by a man she wished she didn't, regeared into a machine to turn profit--at any cost. 

That had been when Weiss had broached the topic with Winter and Whitley, just a month after the Crisis was officially declared over, and over the space of hours, they'd reached an accord. 

_Treason_ , Jacques would have called it. For his crimes against the world, for his twisted cruelty, for everything he'd done to the three of them in the long years they'd spent beneath his thumb, they'd take what mattered to him most--the SDC. 

They'd comply with the corruption watchdog's quiet investigation of the company's dealings. They'd get the investigators whatever they required to _take Jacques down_.

To that end, Weiss had tried to make nice with Jacques, to lower his guard, engaging him in an attempt at reconciliation. She'd never been formally disowned, Weiss had reasoned. Surely there had been a reason for that, despite everything?

She'd been a fool. A trusting, naive fool when she should have known _better_. She'd seen first hand what Jacques was capable of, seen him tear corporate opponents to shreds without so much as a glance in hindsight. Perhaps she'd simply believed he'd protect the family--not just his own skin. 

He'd been playing with her all along. 

When she'd finally begun to dig into the company's records, carefully, with no warning to force Jacques' hand or set off any contingencies to wipe or corrupt the files, she'd found it. She found _her_ name, co-signing every hidden deal and involved in every email or memo chain that screamed 'insider trading'. 

She was in all the meeting minutes. She was pivotal in closing deals. Some of them predated her Beacon days, others had coincided with her few trips back to Atlas before the fall. The picture painted by what she'd found wasn't one of an imperfect heiress--it was of a ruthless, brilliant one, as morally-bankrupt as her father. 

Weiss had very quickly realised the truth, the implicit threat within the data. The only way to save _herself_ from the consequences of the watchdog's investigation was to disengage, to _comply_ with whatever efforts Jacques was making to thwart the outcome. 

If she took the plunge, provided the documents to seal his fate, she'd end her own future just as definitively. 

The stakes were real. Weiss had uncovered insider trading, black market deals, funding of a dozen different terrorist groups, even insurance fraud when she'd found evidence of quarry sabotage. If any of it came to light, there would be jail time to be served. And she'd be held responsible, right along with her father. 

Weiss hadn't signed those documents, for all that she may have attended the functions at which the deals had been struck. Perhaps she could eventually prove those signatures were not hers, that she was innocent, but it would be a long, dozen years in court. 

What was terrifying was that he'd had to have had it prepared all along, ready to be revealed at the first stone unturned. Weiss supposed his contempt for her, his lack of truly training her in the company business, made more sense. Had she always been intended to be his scapegoat? His insurance against family treason?

How, exactly, could they explain what had happened to the corruption watchdog? Who'd want to believe how Jacques treated his family, _her_? Who would want to believe Weiss had been set up to fall? Even now, she felt like a liar, and she knew they'd treat her as one. 

Weiss' hands were trembling, and she clasped them together in front of her, a desperate effort to still them. Wetting her lips, she asked Whitley, "And there has been nothing from Winter?"

She loathed how unsteady her voice was. 

"Not so much as a whisper," Whitley replied, taking a long swallow of his coffee.

"Shit." It slipped out before she could think to bite it back, and she sank back against the chair. "How long has it been?"

"Two and a half weeks, by my count." Whitley looked down into his mug of coffee, swirling the cooling dark contents, his expression pensive. "After all this time, you don't truly believe she'll find anything, do you?"

"She has to." Weiss exhaled, and if she hadn't been in a coffeeshop commandeered by her brother for a secret meeting, she might have looked around for something stronger to drink. Winter had refused to let Jacques win, and... she'd always come through in the end for Weiss. She just had to pray this time would be no different. 

Her brother, on the other hand...

"Have you thought, perhaps, of simply taking him down with you?" Whitley asked, the prying, calculating twist to his tone back once again. She returned his, narrow, assessing gaze, the back of her neck prickling. 

"You'd just love that, wouldn't you?" Weiss' jaw clenched so hard it ached. "I have no desire to _martyr_ myself, Whitley." 

Whitley shrugged, taking another sip of coffee, the smug curl of his lips mocking. "Oh, yes. My mistake--I suppose that _is_ more Ms. Rose's style." 

Weiss stilled, and she couldn't silence the alarm bells screaming in her mind as she snarled, "Don't you dare bring her into this!"

Whitley's smile held no joy, no smugness, only ice. "You're really too _easy._ Barely over a week with them, and already the harsh lessons of this past year have slipped your grasp. Are you planning on informing them of just how _compromised_ you are, sister?"

Weiss' throat felt parched, and with an effort, she swallowed past it. "Yes."

Whitley snorted, and the look he gave her was one of contempt. "Then father really does have the right of you. Soft, and unable to do what must be done." 

"Say that _again,_ " Weiss snapped, her hand straying to Myrtenaster's hilt at her hip, her skin crawling. 

The hired thugs stationed around the coffeeshop began to shift, reaching for their own weapons. At the edge of Weiss' awareness, she could feel their aura beginning to hum, active and ready. Whitley, on the other hand, merely looked amused, reaching for his untouched applecake.

"We both know you've not the stomach for that. So why pretend?"

Icy and furious, she watched him take a leisurely bit, watched him chew and swallow. For all her training, for all her deadliness on the battlefield, Whitley would never take her seriously. 

Just like Jacques. _Always_ like Jacques. 

The embers of Weiss' anger stirred again, hungry for the oxygen her brother was providing so readily, but she released Myrtenaster's hilt all the same. Reluctantly, she told him, "I'd planned to tell them. It's just..."

"It's just _so difficult_ to admit to what you may have been party to." Whitley spread his hands, his blue eyes glittering cold in the orange firelight. "I'll save you the trouble of deciding. You shouldn't tell them."

Weiss' eyes narrowed. "Afraid it'll tarnish the Schnee name a little further, before you can swoop in and take charge?"

"You and I both know the SDC is dead in the water." Whitley looked her up and down, tapping his cheek thoughtfully as he reclined back in his chair. He nodded to himself. "I understand you're feeling a little _guilty_ , and want to come clean with your team to ease it. The investigation. Our father's implied threats to your future. Winter's mission. But have you bothered to consider what happens afterwards?"

Weiss said nothing, her mind working. She'd imagined telling her team, of course she had. As difficult as it would be, she owed the truth to them. But...

Whitley took her silence for what it was, and shaking his head, he continued. "What happens, when with the _very best_ of intentions, they reach out to a contact through an unsecured channel--all to help their dear friend dig herself out of such a quagmire?"

Weiss' stomach turned, cold sweat trickling down between her shoulder blades. There was no doubt in her mind that Jacques would learn of it--learn of Winter's last ditch attempt at gaining the information they need. He'd learn of everything, and then he'd counter. 

It was far too dangerous to risk. 

"I understand you want to tell Ms. Rose everything, to prove how much you trust her." Whitley leaned back in his chair, and Weiss watched him shift, lacing his fingers in his lap. "Today's episode in the diner was a near thing, wasn't it?"

Weiss felt herself go rigid, and she met his eyes as she demanded, "You were _watching_ me?"

"If _I_ have eyes on you, assume _he_ does, too," Whitley snapped, and Weiss felt herself flinch. "Of course he knows about your little crush on Ms. Rose, even a blind moron would! So, tell me, Weiss--how badly do you want her to pay in blood for the risk we're taking against him?"

Weiss bit down on the inside of her check to keep herself from snapping back at him. She'd wanted nothing more than to take this mission, to pretend that everything happening back in Atlas had just been a nightmare. But the nightmare was so very real, and it effected everything she did--everything she _felt_. 

She remembered thinking in the hunter outfitter store, that perhaps confessing everything--her feelings and her failures--would be worth the risk. But it wasn't, she understood that. She couldn't allow her team to take that hit for her. 

Weiss, Winter, Whitley--it was their responsibility to ensure Jacques paid for his black market deals, his insider trading, his embezzlement, his corruption. They were Schnees. But that didn't mean the weight of that burden hadn't been killing her slowly, poisoning her from the inside, for the past week.

"This is a distraction I don't need," Weiss told him, but her voice sounded foreign, unsteady even to her own ears. 

"You made this choice when you decided you wanted one last hurrah with your team, as opposed to doing something constructive." Whitley nodded to himself, as though the matter were entirely decided, her own desires be damned. "Wait. Three days, and one way or another, this sorry saga ends."

Weiss couldn't find the energy nor the will within in herself to respond, and she could feel Whitley's eyes on her, waiting. Impatient. 

After a few moments, she heard Whitley shift again, clicking his tongue in disappointment. "I see. You're still not sold on the right choice? Whatever would _Winter_ say? She's your last chance, and you're so eager to throw her efforts away."

Weiss looked up, sharp. "I'm not throwing them away!"

"Then don't be ruled by emotion. Don't throw our year to the dogs. So I ask you--are you going to tell them?"

"No." Weiss ground the words out from between clenched teeth, and she could not have hated herself more for her decision. 

Whitley, as toxic and awful as he'd always been, was also right. Jacques played to win, and time and time again, he'd proven himself leagues above Weiss' own political acumen. She stared down at her gloved hands, watching them slowly curl into fists. 

She was reaping what she'd sowed, it felt. She'd been the beneficiary of a thousand illegal deals, too ready to turn a blind eye, too ready to be complacent. Weiss might have inherited much of her father's temper, but she really was just as much her mother's daughter--just as Vanta had implied. 

She couldn't bring her friends into this. She couldn't drag Ruby under, not when she was still trying so hard to keep her own head above the water. That much was growing clearer to Weiss by the day as her best friend, her partner, her _everything_ struggled to keep up the fragile mask of a smile. 

_Masks._ If Weiss had had the energy, she might have laughed. She knew far too much about those. 

"I won't tell them." Weiss lifted her gaze to Whitley, then, a dreadful calm settling over her shoulders as she raised her chin. She exhaled, soft and weary. "Three days, then?"

He arched an eyebrow at the shift in her demeanour, but didn't question it. "That's what I'm told."

"Very well." She nodded, satisfied. Three days would have to do, somehow, but in the meantime... She rose to her feet, pinning him with her gaze. "Leave Mantle, and don't come back."

Whitley looked amused by the very idea of an ultimatum, and he waved a dismissive hand. "Or what? You'll stick me with the pointy end of your sword?"

Weiss might have replied with something just as cutting, just as toxic, but none of it mattered, did it? 

She merely looked at him, unable to find the energy to care. "Just... let me have this one thing, Whitley. Three days with them, without your interference. That's all I'm asking for."

Without a further word, Weiss left her brother sitting in his commandeered coffeeshop, ducking out the roller doors and into the freezing night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hadn't intended this to be so long, but I really wanted to get the game of "What's Up With Weiss" over and done with! At least for you guys. 
> 
> Again this is a bit heavy as a chapter, but I also wanted to consolidate the missionfic aspect thus far as well! I can't be the only one who tends to forget that sort of stuff when reading other fics, so I guess I usually appreciate that sort of thing myself! 
> 
> I'd planned on taking a short break from writing Reprise to instead do a oneshot or two, but I think I might just keep at this one, haha. 
> 
> What do you mean I'm rambling because I'm nervous about this chapter, why would you think that?


	7. Two Steps Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weiss isn't the only member of Team RWBY coming unstuck. Blake does her best to navigate the volatile waters, and Yang takes her big sister duties very, very seriously.

For the second night running, Crescent Rose lay pieces, red-stained steel vivid against the grey of the filthy work cloth, the countless gears and coils carefully disassembled and laid out for close, critical inspection. Replacing the worn out mechanisms Ruby had identified the night before had been a quick job, occupying her mind and hands for just an hour at best, but...

Ruby frowned, holding up one of the armoured plates above eye level, letting the kitchen light gleam along its length. She checked it yet again for warping, a hint that the welding wasn't standing up to the demands of fighting Grimm, even scratches to be buffed out--but there was _nothing._ It, like the rest of Crescent Rose, was flawless, and for once in Ruby's life, she found that disappointing. 

Exhaling, Ruby set the plate back down on the oil-stained cloth, her fingers slippery with cold sweat and grease. Her weapon, it seemed, wasn't going to do a lot to help her tonight. 

Ruby had turned in for the night when Yang and Blake had, but with Weiss off... wherever it was she'd gone, and the gravity of the day still pressing like the weight of a thousand goliaths on Ruby's shoulders, sleep hadn't come easily. When it finally had, her dreams had been restless, and just as she'd feared, they _brimmed_ with nameless horrors, old and brand new. 

Even now, in the safe reality of the kitchen, she could see her nightmares playing out behind her eyelids, in the space between each blink. She remembered white snow, drifting down from a starless black sky, the world reduced to an infinity of silence and stillness as she'd followed floundering tracks into the forest. 

Slowly, splatters of blood had coloured the churned up snow, growing darker and heavier the longer Ruby tracked them. It had grown colder, until she'd felt ice clinging to her face, her clothing, her body heavy and numb with it, her breath rising in clouds from her lips, rasping and short. Finally, as she'd followed the tracks to an opening in the forest, she'd felt the sharp burn in her hand.

She'd looked down. Black ichor had dripped from Ruby's fingers, thicker than blood and burning _hot_ , and in the dark clearing ahead of her, Ruby had heard Salem's laugh ring out. 

_A simple soul. A naive fool all the same._

And then, she'd felt _anger._

Ruby had snapped awake in a panic, her chest heaving as she struggled to figure out how oxygen worked, her headache splitting. She'd bitten back her first urge to call for Yang, and feverishly feeling about the bed beside her, she'd realised Weiss wasn't there, either. 

She'd been alone, isolated in the oppressive dark, and no matter how much she'd tried to convince herself that it was just a dream, she'd been unable to recenter herself. Finally, she'd reached out, grabbing one of her dry jackets from her bag. It was hardly warmer than her hoodie, pockmarked by rogue Dust reactions on the sleeves, the cuffs frayed and the zipper more inclined to jam up than actually do what it was supposed to, but it was comfortable. 

Ruby really needed comfort tonight.

She swallowed, looking back to where she'd propped up her scroll against the stack of Blake's books, the screen angled so she'd be able to spot a text immediately. 

There was nothing, of course. There'd been nothing for _hours,_ and Ruby's stomach twisted in on itself, a sharp and toxic combination of panic and fear. 

Weiss hadn't come back to the apartment.

Ruby knew she wasn't going to win any awards for being the most attentive, observant partner. She struggled with a lot of the subtleties that came naturally to both Weiss and Blake, but... even _she_ could figure out that Weiss' walk was absolutely not a walk. 

It was far more likely that it was more _Schnee business_ \--that general, indescribable term that always made Weiss so miserable when she finally returned. 

Again, that strangling feeling of failure rose up in Ruby's chest. How hadn't she connected the dots on Weiss' past year? She really was a--a _naive fool._ The echo of Salem's voice burned, ringing like a hot brand in the forefront of her mind, and it was a struggle to swallow past the lump in her throat. 

The very thought of Salem being right about anything was enough to make her stomach begin to rebel.

Desperate to fool herself into a sense of normalcy, Ruby reached out, snagging her scroll between her fingers and tapping out a quick text, her palms slippery with grease and cold, nervous sweat. It was a harmless message, just a _"Hey, where'd you get to?"_ , but it was action. It was something. 

Ruby waited, staring down at the scroll in her hands as she waited for a response. 

Weiss had always been super prompt with texting back, and when the CCT had finally gone back online after Salem's defeat, that hadn't changed a bit. Even when Ruby hadn't been sure she deserved a response, having abandoned both Weiss and Blake in the wake of Salem's defeat to figure out what her actions meant for herself, Weiss had still replied immediately. 

But, then there had been today--Weiss had ignored all of those calls. The memory clung to Ruby's thoughts, and awful as it was to even consider, she had to wonder. Was Weiss ignoring her, too?

Her throat constricting in misery, Ruby shoved her scroll in her jacket pocket and instead reached out for Crescent Rose, determined to drive the traitorous idea from her mind. She just had to bury herself in the mechanics of her weapon a little longer, she told herself, her jaw tight and stubborn. 

It was better than thinking about Salem, better than thinking about the seed of anger still buried deep in her stomach, better than thinking about her nightmares, better than wondering endlessly about _Weiss_ \--

Ruby's breath escaped her in a hiss as she fumbled one of the parts for the wickedly curved blade, the meticulously-sharpened edge of it slicing deep into her the inside of her palm. Blood welled up as she stared down at her hand, her mind suddenly blank, stark red against pale skin and dark grease, dripping down the back of her hand and onto the oily cloth beneath.

 _Amateur move._ The thought was poison, rife with self-recriminations. Ruby's heart was pounding in her ears, her breath shallow, rasping and entirely foreign. 

Blinking rapidly, she set the blade back down on the cloth. She had to fix this, she realised, trying to gather the trembling scatter of her thoughts even as they slipped through her fingers. Somehow, she had to--

Ruby's gaze fell on the towel she'd used earlier that night to dry away the rain. She pushed herself away from the kitchen table, her breath still short and sharp, sending her chair skidding back across the floor without care. Wrapping the towel tightly about her injured hand, Ruby left Crescent Rose on the table, instead sinking down onto the couch. 

This was so _stupid_ \--one reminder of Salem's powers and Ruby was right back where she'd started! It was as if all her hard-won progress this year gone had just up and evaporated, leaving her with nothing but uncertainty. 

Salem was dead and Ruby was alive, the world was saved and she had everyone she loved with her. It was meant to be over. It was meant to be happily ever after. 

A part of her wondered--perhaps she didn't deserve it, for all that she'd done to win the final fight. Perhaps she'd poisoned the well herself.

Ruby sucked in a deep breath, pulling her scroll out of her pocket with her uninjured hand. Weiss still hadn't answered, and while that _hurt_ , with restless, desperate energy, Ruby instead looked back to the last text exchange they'd had. 

It was almost two weeks ago. When Ruby and Yang had found themselves running few days late for the reunion in Mistral, Weiss had sent her a cranky message about punctuality, manners and being raised in a barn. Ruby had eagerly responded, inundating her best friend with a rapid-fire string of replies about heroism and jokes about white being Weiss' colour, not green. 

The back and forth had been easy--so natural it still made Ruby smile. She'd been _so_ excited to finally see Weiss again, crush or no crush, and the whole reunion in Mistral and the mission in Mantle had been like a light at the end of the tunnel. 

Ruby's smile faded, and she sank back against the couch cushions, swallowing past the tightness in her throat. The mission hadn't exactly been what she'd expected, and her dynamic with Weiss seemed to run hot and cold. In the space of a moment, Ruby would feel like they were closer than ever--like she knew Weiss better than she knew herself--and in the next it felt like an entire continent still separated them. 

No matter what Ruby did, she couldn't figure out how to close the distance between them. 

She found herself tapping out another message below the last unanswered one--slowly, awkwardly, erasing it to start another, then thinking better of that one, too. There was so much Ruby wanted to say. She _wanted_ to tell Weiss everything going on in her head, about Salem and Cinder and everything that happened afterwards, and to somehow get Weiss to open up in return. 

But... how _could_ she? The distance, the exhaustion, the secrets, the look on Weiss' face when she saw her father on the screen just the afternoon gone. They all snarled like thorns in Ruby's mind, digging in deep until she couldn't figure out how pull them free. 

How could she unload all of her own problems on Weiss, when Weiss was already drowning beneath the weight of her family's name?

So Ruby hadn't--and she wouldn't. No matter how much it hurt, no matter how hard it got, Ruby held it inside, hid it behind a smile, pretended her feelings weren't there because that was what Weiss needed. Ruby pretended everything was fine, that she didn't have terrifying nightmares, that she wasn't in love with her best friend. Because Weiss _wasn't_ okay.

Now, she was gone, and Ruby couldn't help but blame herself for that, too. 

It was a toxic mix, combining with her nightmares, all her fears coalescing together until it felt like she couldn't breathe. 

Ruby lifted her gaze, her entire field of vision occupied by the wall of evidence Blake had made of the case file, inescapable and enough to send her reeling. Crime scene photos were splashed all over the wallpaper, victims torn apart, entire teams gone missing, sometimes without a trace. Lawson's gruesome injuries and painful death haunted her, and Ruby swallowed convulsively, her throat parched and her stomach in knots. 

Amidst it all was the word _ICHOR_ , written in stark black ink. 

_Eaten by a monster,_ She'd heard Yang joke, when she hadn't known Ruby was listening in. 

Maybe Yang was right. Ruby exhaled, her grasp tightening the wrap of towel about her injured hand, icy panic rising up in her chest. What if Yang _was_ right?

Ruby gritted her teeth, pain lancing through her palm with every twitch of muscle as she unwound the towel. The cut was deep and dark, her skin stained bloody, and while her aura could take care of the worst of it within a day or so, she was going to need stitches to kick-start the process. 

_No good,_ Ruby thought, feverish. She cast a look toward the gear she'd bought with Weiss that afternoon, still in bags against the wall. She had to go after Weiss, she realised feverishly, even with her hand like this. 

She had to find Weiss, and together, they could try to figure it out. 

She _had_ to. She was the leader, Ruby told herself, her chest growing tighter as her head began to pound in tandem with her pulse, the pain dizzyingly sharp. Weiss was her best friend, Weiss was her everything, and if she somehow lost her after they'd survived Salem's hell--

Ruby stared down at her bloody hand, her breath ragged, blinking back the sudden sting in her eyes. She didn't know what she'd do.

###

Blake wasn't sure what pulled her awake with hours to go before dawn, but the apartment was freezing, her mouth was so dry she was certain her throat was sticking to itself, and Yang was snoring.

Propping herself up on her elbows and trying to swallow past the itch in her throat, Blake squinted as she caught light filtering in through the crack beneath the bedroom door--someone was in the kitchen? Blake tilted her head, slowly blinking back the sleep from her eyes, loathing the way her brain immediately began to work, the way it refused to allow her the retreat of sleep before she figured out who was out there and _why_. 

It was with great reluctance that Blake disentangled herself from Yang's wonderful warmth, groaning beneath her breath as she pushed back the bedcovers. The wash of air against Blake's sleep-warmed skin was like a bucket of ice-water, and her ears laid back flat as again she questioned her life and her choices. 

She had no idea how the apartment kept growing so cold so quickly, but even _with_ actual space-heater Yang in her bed, she was feeling it. Blake sighed--the next time Ruby looked her dead in the eyes and switched the heater off to 'save lien', she was going to protest cruel and unusual punishment. 

And then probably hide ice Dust in her pillow, just to make a point. 

Clenching her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering loudly enough to wake her sleeping partner, Blake pulled on one of the sweaters she'd left by the side of the bed. 

She'd be quick--she'd figure out who was out there, herd them off to bed, and then fix herself a mug of water--and then she'd be back to plastering herself along the length of Yang's warm back, greedily soaking up her heat. Everything would be right in the world. 

Of course, that plan had _not_ accounted for finding their impulsive, foolhardy leader bleeding all over the couch as she struggled one-handed with the leather straps on her new, fur-lined jacket, and Crescent Rose in pieces on the table. 

Oblivious to Blake's presence, Ruby growled beneath her breath, pulling the belt about her bicep with her teeth, the desperate set to her jaw screaming all-pervasive fear--something Blake was so very familiar with. 

_This isn't good,_ Blake realised, and the cold chill that ran down her spine had nothing to do with Mantle's poor weather. Pitching her voice low, she asked, "Ruby, what's going on?"

Ruby flinched at the sound of her voice, her bloodied hand drawn back defensively to her chest. The leather strap between Ruby's teeth dropped, and it seemed to take her a moment before she could rally enough to answer. 

"Weiss hasn't come back." Ruby's lips flattened in a thin, stubborn line. She exhaled, low and shaking, beginning to tug on the strap again, insistent and only growing more frustrated. "I need to go make sure she's okay."

The hair on the back of Blake's neck prickled, and it felt as though she'd been backhanded by an ursa--Weiss hadn't made it back? But it was just hours before dawn, and as far as Blake knew, it had only been a call.

Weiss surely wouldn't have been spirited off by faceless Atlesian agents in black suits just yet. Not while Jacques and the Atlesian Security Council were still waging their private war on just what would happen, when the SDC and its most visible representatives were publicly crucified. 

Belatedly, Blake realised she'd held her silence far too long. Ruby's silver gaze had turned to her, sharpening into a terrifying, rare clarity reserved only for the most dangerous hunts. 

"Blake?" Ruby ventured, her expression anguished, her voice low and hoarse, all of it screaming a warning in Blake's mind. "Do you know what's going on? Where _is_ she?"

"I'm not sure," Blake replied, and Ruby's shoulders sagged, just for a moment. 

With a feverish shake of her head, Ruby turned her attention back to the shoulder strap she'd been struggling with, fumbling at it with her good hand. Her other hand, still wrapped up in a towel, had probably started bleeding all over again. 

Blake mentally revised her assessment of the situation--this wasn't just _not good_ , it was a disaster in-progress. Did she have time to go and rouse Yang? 

"Ruby," she tried, but Ruby's expression had taken on a stubborn cast. The sort of look that meant trouble--like _"I'll rescue Pyrrha"_ or _"the war ends tonight"_. 

"I need to go find her." Ruby's breath hitched, her teeth baring, and she still wasn't looking in Blake's direction. "Blake--"

"Sit down, Ruby. Please," Blake cut in, closing the distance between them in a flash, pressing Ruby back down to the couch with a hand to her shoulder, gentle but firm. Blake could feel Ruby trembling even as she reluctantly complied, hear the catch of her breath in her throat, her silver eyes _raw_ as she wrestled with--

With a jolt, Blake made the connection, and she could have kicked herself. While Weiss' absence was certainly a flashpoint, this reaction was about far, far more. She hadn't realised Ruby had been under so much pressure, or that things might have slipped sideways so quickly. 

Whatever had happened, Ruby didn't need to make rash, impulsive decisions--she needed a friend to keep her steady, and Blake could give her that. Team RWBY had been her own port in a storm countless times, and she hardly minded returning the favour.

"Before we even talk about going to find Weiss, we need to get your hand fixed up," Blake told Ruby, her voice low and conversational as she reached out, resting her palm against Ruby's shoulder. "You're normally more careful with Crescent Rose."

Ruby swallowed, looking ill even as she tried to offer Blake a smile, her hand still held protectively against her chest. "A little distracted, I guess." 

"I can see that," Blake replied, giving Ruby's shoulder a gentle squeeze before climbing to her feet. "Don't move. I'll clean up the cut and find the first aid kit."

Ruby's face was pale, gaunt and guilty, but she seemed willing to comply--for the time being, at least. Blake still kept a steady eye on her fearless, stubborn leader as she moved around the kitchen, filling one of the spare bowls with hot water from the tap and tugging a clean cloth from the drawer. By the time she dug out the hunter first aid kit from the supply closet the team had pooled together, Ruby's leg was bouncing in nervous, barely-contained energy, her silver eyes flickering tellingly toward the door. 

"Ruby."

Ruby jolted, a deer in the headlights, as though she'd been caught once again with her hand in the cookie jar. She ducked her head, miserable and withdrawn.

"Sorry. I just--can we try to hurry? Please?"

Blake hesitated. There was no way on Remnant she was going to let Ruby tear off after Weiss--not the way she was now--but she knew better than to argue the point. 

_The hand first, then I'll try to reason with her._

Blake returned, occupying the spot on the couch by Ruby's side, the bowl of hot water balanced between her knees as she motioned for Ruby to allow her to see her hand properly. 

Ruby exhaled, the tight line of pain in her jaw growing even more pronounced as she began to unwrap the bloody towel, before finally dropping it in a messy pile on the threadbare carpet. Only then did she push her hand toward Blake, her gaze averted.

Blake winced in sympathy, her touch as gentle as she could manage as she examined Ruby's bloody palm. The cut was a clean slice, yes, but it was in a bad spot and deep enough to stymie any attempts by Ruby's aura to heal it up quickly. 

"Not as bad as I thought," Blake said after a long moment, her voice low. She folded the cloth into a neat square, dipping the corner into the hot water. "Stitches aren't going to be fun, however."

Ruby sucked in a sharp breath, her shoulders steeling. "They never really are."

Blake began to wipe away the congealing blood, deliberate, gentle and slow, holding Ruby's hand steady with her own, her fingers tight about Ruby's wrist to remind her not to 'accidentally' jerk away. Blake was frankly counting her lucky stars Ruby hadn't tried to forgo proper treatment entirely. 

If she'd been present, Blake had no doubt Weiss would have had a lot to say about that sort of attitude, hypocritical as she could be on the topic of brushing off injuries in favour of single-minded pursuit of a goal. Her absence, though, was the spark that had ignited the problem--Weiss wasn't here, and Ruby wasn't okay.

But that was only just a part of the problem, a symptom of something larger. 

"Nightmares, then?" Blake asked, her tone low and cautious as she worked, keeping her attention on Ruby's bloody palm. She'd known about those for a long time, both the old ones from before Beacon, the ones that had plagued her since the Fall, and the newer ones since the end of the Crisis. 

Yang had been sure Ruby was improving, the nightmares becoming less frequent, less terrifying, less _vivid_. Recovery was hardly a straight line, however. 

Ruby was quiet, staring into some distant point beyond the apartment's front door, and Blake wondered if she'd heard the question at all. Blake sighed, giving up on an answer, but as she rinsed the blood from the cloth again, Ruby finally replied. 

"I don't really want to talk about it."

 _Of course._ Blake's jaw tightened. Neither Weiss nor Ruby were doing any favours for themselves lately, and a part of her wondered--perhaps Weiss' inability to communicate was playing a part in Ruby's own painful reticence. She refolded the wet cloth, dabbing closer toward the open cut on Ruby's palm.

Ruby hissed, trying to snatch her hand away, but Blake tightened her grasp about Ruby's wrist. 

"Hold your hand _steady._ " Blake lifted her gaze to Ruby's then, her gaze narrow and unimpressed. "You need to stop flinching, or this will only take longer."

Ruby bit down on her lower lip, her eyes moving unerringly back to the door. "I need to go find her."

"You shouldn't."

"Gonna try to stop me?" Ruby asked, her voice tight as Blake continued to dab at the cut, the set of her jaw stubborn. 

"I like to think I pick my battles better than you're giving me credit for." Blake snorted beneath her breath, shifting to get a better angle from the poor kitchen lighting. Her voice completely dry, she added, "If I was going to fight you, I'd hardly make it fair."

Ruby twitched, drawing back, her expression entirely uncertain, and Blake sighed. 

"A joke, though perhaps one in poor taste." She looked across at Ruby, frowning as she took in the dark circles beneath her eyes, the tension in her jaw, the pallor of her complexion. Weiss wasn't the only one just barely keeping herself together. "Ruby, you've barely slept a wink. Now is not the time to go traipsing about a strange city in the dark."

"Blake, Weiss is _out there,_ " Ruby said, her voice low and so taut it practically trembled, her words coming faster and faster as she continued. "That thing hurts huntresses, and she's all on her own and she hasn't answered a single one of my texts and I can't--"

"Ruby, slow down. Breathe. I'm sure she's okay." Blake let the cloth fall back into the bowl, her mind working. She understood where Ruby was coming from, of course she did, but it was far more likely that Weiss' call with whatever family member she'd decided to get in contact with had gone poorly. 

Not that she could adequately convey those thoughts to Ruby, Blake realised, her stomach twisting sharply. 

"Not gonna risk it." Ruby's shoulders tensed, the fingers of her uninjured hand twisting in her skirt. "I'll never forgive myself if she's _hurt_ and I just sat around and let her--"

"What choices Weiss makes is on her, not you." Blake met Ruby's silver eyes, refusing to second-guess her own instincts, refusing to let Ruby take the blame for this. "But there is more to this, and it's not your fault."

Blake began to dig around in the first aid kit, looking for the aura salves, the stitches and bandages. Ruby was right, of course she was. Weiss was out there, alone, and there had to be a damn good reason she hadn't come home, hadn't answered a single message. Not that it in any way excused her for putting Ruby through this--Blake would be sure to tell her _that_. 

But a phonecall with her family. Blake wasn't a fool. There was a wealth of messed up Schnee family dynamics, and any one of them could have set Weiss off. If she'd not come back, then... 

_Just the blaze of glory of a breakdown._ Yang's words rang out in Blake's mind, and all of a sudden, it felt as though the die had been cast. 

She was silent, her mind working as she administered the numbing ointment to Ruby's palm, stitching the cut up with little fanfare and no further conversation. 

It was only when Blake smoothed the aura-boosting salve over the ridge of the stitches that Ruby inhaled, and she realised Ruby had been thinking. 

"I know it's about her family, again." Ruby's voice was low and rough, but she didn't withdraw her hand as Blake began to wrap her hand in protective bandages. Ruby lifted her gaze to Blake's, her silver eyes open, honest and hurt. "I know she didn't tell me everything. I'm not completely naive." 

There was a twist of pain touching her tone toward the end, and Blake couldn't help but wonder at Ruby's voice of words. She didn't answer immediately, thinking, and when she remained silent, Ruby withdrew her hand, flexing her fingers to test the flexibility of the bandages. 

Nodding to herself and satisfied with Blake's handiwork, she said, 

"Fine. I'll find her and ask her myself. No big deal."

Blake looked at her leader--too open, too giving, and far too easily hurt. She didn't have the leathery durability of Yang, or Weiss' ice and temper, or even the keen self-preservation instincts Blake could rely on. She felt with the whole of her, nothing held back--and that why this was the worst thing Ruby could do when she was as close to falling apart as she was. 

When Weiss was stressed, when she was hurting, when she was under pressure, she lashed out at undeserving targets. Blake could concede that Ruby could talk Weiss down with the best of them, but tonight? 

Blake couldn't let them do that to themselves. 

"Ruby." Blake wet her lips, setting the bowl on the coffee table, careful not to slosh the bloody water over the scroll logs. "That might not be the best idea." 

Ruby forced a laugh, rubbing at her bandages with the thumb of her uninjured hand. "I'm full of terrible ideas, lately."

"Then you don't need to add to the list." Blake tried to soften her voice, setting a hand to Ruby's shoulder. "Go back to bed. Sleep a little, you're practically about to pass out right here."

Ruby's eyes flickered, just a hint of the turmoil she always hid with a smile. "Blake, I can't just--"

"You can. If you really believe you must go out there and find her, well, you're right. I can't stop you. But I'm also going to say this--you need to take care of yourself first, and I believe at some level, you already know that." Blake exhaled, and finally, she nodded to herself. If she couldn't let Ruby go, then... "Let me do this, instead. I'll track her down, Ruby. Trust me on this."

Ruby stared at her, her eyes wide, her expression torn, and for a long moment, Blake wondered if they were going to have a serious argument about it. 

"Fine." Ruby's breath shuddered, and she seemed to retreat in on herself as she hugged her elbows. She swallowed. "Fine, just--just make sure she's okay. Even if she doesn't want to talk to me."

Blake's heart sank. "It's not about you, Ruby."

"Yeah. I know. Hurts all the same, though." Finally, Ruby forced a smile, weak, weary and defeated. "Give her heck for letting me worry, then?" 

It was as much of a concession that Blake would get from Ruby, as caught up in panic as she was, and slowly, she nodded. 

"Count on it." She tilted her head, trying to offer Ruby something--anything. "I'll let you know as soon as I find her."

Ruby nodded, her eyes distant as she climbed to her feet, her movements clumsy and graceless. Blake watched her retreat back to her room, and she only felt safe to relax when she heard the door click shut. 

Whether or not Ruby would actually sleep was anyone's guess, but Blake hoped she'd try. 

She exhaled, cradling her head in her hands for a moment, listening to the howl of the wind outside the quiet apartment. She'd do exactly as she'd promised Ruby--she'd find Weiss, figure things out with her, get her back home. But that didn't mean she didn't realise she'd signed up for a fight and a half. 

_The blaze of glory of a breakdown._

Blake finally rose, rinsing her hands off beneath the kitchen tap and determined to get going before she could begin to doubt herself. But before all that, she needed to let Yang know what had happened out here. 

Yang was still snoring loudly enough to wake the dead when Blake pushed her way back into their room, the bedcovers slung low about her hips. Unlike Blake, she hadn't so much as pulled on a shirt after they'd made love, entirely unbothered by the creeping cold. Her shoulder was addictively warm as Blake perched on the side of the bed, giving her a quick, gentle shake. 

"Mmph?" Yang awoke mid-snore, her entire body going rigid in a moment of tangible alarm, her prosthetic hand clenching in the fabric of Blake's sweater before she husked, "Blake?"

Blake reached out, unerringly seeking Yang's cheek in the dark to reassure her. As she felt Yang relax into the touch, her fingers loosening, she said, "Weiss didn't come back last night."

Yang watched her for all of a few seconds, her expression hazy and confused in the dark, even to Blake's far keener eyes. Blake could practically hear the cogs begin to groan into action in Yang's head, before she finally connected the dots. 

"Wait. _What?_ "

"I'm going to go look for her," Blake told Yang, not worrying about repeating herself--Yang didn't really need it. Inhaling sharply, she added, "Ruby's... Ruby isn't in the best way, either. She might need you."

If Yang hadn't been paying attention before, she would be now. Yang pushed herself up onto her elbow, switching on the bedside table lamp and flooding the room with dim, yellow light. 

"Got it." Yang ran a hand through her wild gold hair, trying to dispel the dregs of sleep as she took a deep breath. "Okay. Divide and conquer. I'll see to Rubes, you figure out what's up with Weiss."

Blake's stomach twisted, and darkly, she replied, "I do know what it is, and it's nothing good."

Yang's eyebrows rose, and Blake watched her lips tighten as she read into it. Finally, she asked, "Sure you're gonna be okay with her on your own?"

Blake's lips tugged upward in a reluctant smile, warmth suffusing her stomach as she took in Yang's worried, open look. Yang really was the sweetest person Blake knew. While she had no doubt in her mind that the next few hours were going to be rough, at the moment, Ruby needed Yang far more than Blake did.

"I've rolled with far worse punches than Weiss can throw." Blake huffed a shallow, weak laugh, beginning to shed her sleepwear in favour of something more resistant to the cold. "I just need you to buy me a bit of time to help her figure this out."

"I can do that." Yang watched her change, still propped up on her prosthetic elbow. "Ruby wants to go with you, doesn't she?"

Blake pulled on her jeans, sighing as she cast a flat, unamused look in the direction of the other bedroom. "If she's not already escaped out her window, yes."

Yang was silent as Blake dragged her dark sweater over her head, before grabbing her leather jacket from where she'd hung it on the hook earlier that afternoon. A pair of gloves, her boots and one of her warmest scarves, and she was done--and ready to face the freezing night for the sake of Weiss bloody Schnee. 

As Blake wound her scarf about her neck and high over her mouth, Yang finally said, "Are we totally convinced it wouldn't be better for them to just... vent it out at one another? It's worked before."

"With how Ruby is tonight? Not a chance." Blake shook her head, before taking a deep, steadying breath. "Wish me luck."

Yang swung her legs over the side of the bed, reached for one of her crumpled tshirts. "As if you need it. I do wish Weiss _sense_ , however."

"Appreciated." Blake stooped to press her lips to Yang's in a quick, searing kiss, before withdrawing. "I'll keep you updated."

Yang flashed her a smile full of confidence Blake wished she shared. "Go wreck her with your powers of persuasion, tiger. We've _totally_ got this."

###

With her hand all wrapped up and numbed from the cream Blake had used, reassembling Crescent Rose took a lot longer than Ruby was really used to. She was back at the kitchen table, carefully sliding the gears into their rightful places, her screwdriver clenched in between her teeth as she worked.

Blake had already been gone for a few hours now. Ruby had tried to follow her request to rest, she really had. While she'd managed to drift off once or twice, her sleep had been broken, anxious and tense, and she'd been unable to maintain it at all. Breathing hadn't helped, her thoughts on a constant loop. Weiss was out there, somewhere in Mantle, alone. 

And Ruby? She'd backed down, no matter what she believed. Instead, she'd agreed to let _Blake_ handle it. 

Her stomach had churned, miserable and heavy. She was meant to be the leader, wasn't she? She was meant to handle this stuff, no matter how difficult it got. More, she'd promised herself that she would be there for Weiss, and she couldn't even do that. 

How was Weiss going to trust her, if she kept nearly crumbling to pieces? 

Through with pretending to sleep, Ruby had ventured back into the kitchen, her mind working with a half-baked idea of sneaking out to look for Weiss on her own. She hadn't expected to find Yang waiting for her on the couch, her arms crossed against her chest. 

Ruby had frozen in her tracks, her heart sinking as she'd taken one look at Yang's arched eyebrow. Blake had to have told her everything--from the injured hand, to the fact that Ruby had lost her cool so badly--and so far, Yang hadn't dared let Ruby out of her sight. 

To say that Ruby loved Yang was a total understatement. She adored her sister, idolised her--but that didn't mean she wasn't kind of frustrated that her sister had so easily foreseen and thwarted her ideas of finding Weiss on her own. Worse, Yang wasn't even being a _little_ subtle about what she was doing, either. 

Hunched over Crescent Rose's mechanisms, Ruby sighed. But Yang was _good_ at it, though. She supposed her sister had had more than enough practice.

Slowly, her urge to fly apart at the seams had faded as Yang had worked to distract her from the danger in her own thoughts, a constant stream of companionable conversation filling the room. As the hours had dragged onwards, Ruby had found herself slowly refocus enough to turn her attention back to Crescent Rose, to the steadying anchor of gears and springs. 

It was just a little hard not to feel ganged up on about this. Yang and Blake cared for her, and she appreciated that so much, but...

Ruby wasn't a kid. She was an adult huntress, and she was meant to be their leader. 

_I'm meant to be better than this,_ a voice that sounded like Weiss' rang out in Ruby's head as she tightened the screws joining the blade to the haft of Crescent Rose, and she paused. That was something that Weiss would say--and Ruby always worried for her partner whenever she said it. 

The pursuit of perfection was meaningless--and Weiss was wonderful just as she was, as far as Ruby was concerned. Maybe there was just a little bit of hypocrisy, if Ruby found herself thinking the same thing. 

She tilted her head, tuning back in to listen to Yang hum, off-tune and super loud, buzzing about the kitchen as she worked to fix them both hot cocoa. Ruby wasn't sure where the mix had come from, since she hadn't thought to buy it when she'd gone shopping with Weiss, but she'd appreciate the warm comfort all the same. 

_Weiss._ Now that she was thinking a little more clearly, the last evening replayed in Ruby's head on a constant loop. Every moment they'd shared suddenly came under intense examination, Ruby struggling to figure out where she'd gone wrong, what she'd misread. 

Weiss had been distracted, but no more than usual. She'd been preoccupied with her scroll, Ruby remembered, but that wasn't really evidence either. When she'd gone for her walk, Ruby had had every reason in the world to think that whatever call she needed to make would be over quickly, that the matter was simple. 

Maybe it was Winter on the line, or maybe some other SDC jerk giving her trouble. But more and more, Ruby wondered if it was her father, the memory of Weiss' reaction to seeing him on the screen in the diner seared into the front of her mind. What did he _want_ from Weiss? 

What did he think Weiss owed to him, even when she was disowned? What did _Weiss_ think she owed him? Blake's non-committal answer from just hours before haunted Ruby-- _there is more to it._

Ruby leaned back in her chair when the last vivid red armour plate was screwed back into place against the blade, stretching to ease the kinks from her spine, groaning beneath her breath. She rose to her feet, her good hand hitting the each unique combination of buttons to run Crescent Rose through her forms to test them. The weapon's mechanics were fluid and snappy, and Ruby felt the corner of her mouth curl upward in a smile. 

_Scythe, spear, sniper--_

Ruby's fingers hesitated on the final button for _sword_ , the back of her neck prickling, her palm suddenly growing slick with sweat as she hovered on the precipice. Wetting her lips, Ruby shook her head, compacting Crescent Rose back down and laying her weapon on the table. 

Maybe she'd test that function some other... year. And maybe Ruby was a bit of a hypocrite about more than one thing. 

"She's looking good!" Yang said, from where she still lingered at the kitchen stove, her tone cheerful. "Maybe I should give Ember Celica a bit of a tune-up." 

"Probably." Ruby cast her sister a cautious look, before glancing back down to her grease-stained hands. With Crescent Rose done, she was certain she'd find herself in dire need of another distraction soon enough. "I could do it, if you're..."

 _Busy? Distracted?_ Ruby didn't quite know how to finish that thought, so she let the sentence drop, her words hanging between them awkwardly. 

Yang never seemed to mind, and she shrugged an easy shoulder, offering Ruby a wink. "Thanks for the offer, but I like to treat my girls to a more... personal touch." 

Ruby sighed, giving Yang the eyeroll she was apparently so desperate to receive, before drawing her scroll from her jacket pocket again. Weiss would have rolled her eyes, too, and maybe if her mood had been good, she might have made another cringeworthy joke to make Ruby smile, and to give Yang a taste of her own medicine. 

She missed Weiss with a fierceness that left her reeling, but Weiss... Weiss still hadn't responded. 

The table rocked as Yang set two chipped mugs down, sliding one across to rest in front of Ruby. 

"Drink up!" Yang told her as she sank into the chair opposite Ruby, letting out a long, satisfied sigh. "There's more staying warm on the stove, so let's put that sweet-tooth of yours through its paces." 

Obediently, Ruby raised the mug to her lips, even if the sweet liquid was nearly too hot to sip. It filled her chest with a buzz of warmth, and belatedly, Ruby realised she'd been freezing cold. She took another swallow, wrapping her hands about the mug to soak up the heat. 

"It's good," she offered Yang, trying to manage a smile for her sister. 

"Glad to see I haven't lost my touch." 

They sat in silence for a time, and Ruby looked around the kitchen, to the dried-off coat of Weiss' hanging over the back of Yang's chair. The warmth in her chest faded, and she set the mug back down on the table with a sigh. 

"Hey. Yang?" Ruby asked, lifting her gaze to meet Yang's. "Were you serious, last night, when you said you were gonna follow Weiss?"

Yang's expression was cautious, and she took a sip from her mug. "What do you mean by that?"

"I don't know. Just thinking that... maybe you were right." Ruby's stomach twisted, and she grasped her forearm with her good hand, looking to the side. "I guess I feel like I made the wrong call, after all."

The results really did seem to say that, and maybe if Yang had gone after Weiss... 

"Ruby, I didn't--I didn't _think_ something like this was gonna happen, if that's where you're going with this." Yang paused, reaching across the table to lay her hand against Ruby's, giving it a gentle squeeze to draw Ruby's eyes back to her own. Her expression was encouraging. "And it's not like I was doing it because I wanted to be a jerk or to be cruel, or because she frankly has coping strategies as bad as Blake's, if we're being for real."

Ruby made a sound under her breath, trying to find the humour in it, but Yang frowned anyway, drawing back. 

"I guess I _was_ gonna follow her," Yang said, sighing and toying with a lock of her hair, a nervous tic she'd had since they were both kids. "I figured knowing was better than not, and that Weiss would rather swallow her socks than admit she's actually not okay. You know how she is, probably even better than the rest of us. So I figured, why not try to figure out how to lift the burden, on the sly?"

Ruby looked back down to her mug of cocoa, watching the steam rise from it, her heart aching. She honestly still wished she was out there, looking for Weiss, instead of sitting here in warmth and comfort. 

"Maybe we should go after her," Ruby ventured, and Yang leaned back, sighing. 

"Maybe. I still want to." Yang gestured to the empty apartment, just the two of them, but her meaning was clear. "But we, as a team, have made a call on Weiss. Just because things are a little rough right now doesn't mean it was a _bad_ call entirely."

Ruby wasn't quite sure she agreed with that--so far, the decision had been _awful_. The entire night after Weiss had left had sucked, and she'd let it happen. 

"Give your gut instinct a chance, Ruby." Yang rose to her feet, instead taking the chair at Ruby's side, slinging a warm arm about her shoulders. "Blake's gonna find her, drag her back home by the ear, and before you know it, we'll all be laughing about that one time Weiss nearly got herself eaten by a Grimm."

Eaten by a Grimm, hurt by her dad--Ruby cast a pained look back toward the crime scene photos, the dreadful reminder of the stakes they were playing in Mantle. At least a Grimm was something Ruby could _fight._

Was it wrong to prefer the Grimm? Was it tempting fate? 

Ruby exhaled, shaky and low. "I really hope so."

Yang studied her for a long moment, her expression one of worry. Yang had always been an open, reassuring book with her emotions--not like Weiss or Blake. Yang felt what she felt, and she'd never seen a need to hide it. 

"Well, how about we make a sister's day of it instead?" Yang asked, her smile brightening as she dragged Ruby into an even closer hug. "We've barely spent any _quality_ time together since we got to Mistral!"

Ruby huffed a flat laugh, ducking her head. She could try--for Yang. "That's because you've been so busy making heart-eyes at Blake."

"And _you've_ been mooning over Weiss. Don't try to pretend you aren't completely besotted." Yang waved a lofty hand, before laughing. 

"'Besotted'? Really?" Ruby asked, smiling, and it seemed like Yang always knew what to say to get her to cheer up. But Blake's vocabulary was totally, _definitely_ rubbing off on Yang, and while it was a little weird, it was... nice. 

She was glad her sister was so happy, and no matter how miserable she was in her own love life, that would never change. 

"Really. It's been absolutely vomit-worthy in the best kind of way." Yang's grin was fond, and she ruffled Ruby's hair with her flesh and blood hand. "So, how about it? Feel like a little old-fashioned hunting trip, just between sisters?"

Ruby looked back down at her scroll, to where Weiss still hadn't responded. She sighed, nodding to Yang with a small smile. "Yeah. I'm in."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternative chapter title: Where in the World is Weiss Schnee? ~~but that would kind of ruin the tone of this chapter~~
> 
> It's an introspection-heavy chapter, but for the overall character arc for Ruby, it's pretty important. 
> 
> I wanted to spend this chapter focusing on the ongoing plotline re: Ruby's mental state, which I have progressively worsening since the meeting with Vanta. She's trying so hard, but when she's hiding everything behind a smile and not allowing herself to react or process things...
> 
> Fun fact, the slow burn tag also relates to how god-awful slow the pacing is. :')
> 
> I guess I might be rambling here because this chapter was actually really hard to write, due to my own ongoing struggles with anxiety.


	8. Walls Built and Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blake tracks Weiss down to Lawson's warehouse. For all that she's advocated for Weiss' agency, she refuses to allow her friend to self-destruct.

Lawson's commandeered warehouse was located on the edge of an abandoned district in western Mantle. The buildings in the area were rotting, partially destroyed and entirely condemned, their rubble littering the streets. In the rosy dawn light, Blake caught sight of the exposed, twisted rebars jutting from the concrete debris, lonely broken signs hanging down from where they'd come loose from their screws. 

The area seemed to be a hotbed for graffiti, much of it anti-Atlas and anti-SDC, but here and there, Blake could pick out the three slashes of the White Fang's old symbol hidden amidst the wreckage. She supposed, were she to fall back on old operations and had a mind to steal SDC wares, she'd have chosen a similar location to store her takings. 

Blake picked her way toward the warehouse, a shadow in the pale dawn, eyeing the yellow police tape still webbed across the roller door. There were no obvious signs to indicate she'd find her missing teammate, here of all places in Mantle--nothing but a hunch. 

Reaching the door along the side of the building, also practically drowned in heavy-handed police tape, she drew her scroll from her jacket pocket. 

"Here goes nothing," she murmured beneath her breath, her breath rising in a freezing cloud before her lips as she dialled Weiss' number. 

A few beats of silence passed. Within the warehouse, barely audible but for the preternatural sharpness of Blake's own hearing, she caught the sound of a scroll beginning to vibrate on a flat surface. Blake ended the call before she could give Weiss the petty satisfaction of rejecting it, and sighing, she rapped the back of her knuckles on the warehouse's corrugated iron wall. 

"Weiss!" Blake called out, and in the half-demolished buildings around her, she heard a small group of ravens take flight. She was met by telling silence, and growling beneath her breath, she knocked again. "Give it up, I know you're in there!"

Around her, the wind began to pick up, bitter and howling through the debris. Shivering, Blake tugged her scarf over her mouth, digging her hands in her pockets a little deeper. She was sorely tempted to simply bust her way inside, crime scene or not. Just as her patience was about to dry up, however, she caught the sound of footsteps echoing within the warehouse. 

After a moment, the door cracked open, and through the tiny sliver she'd allowed, Weiss was glaring at her. "You cannot be serious, Blake."

Blake offered her a shrug, amused at the schadenfreude no matter the scorn practically dripping from Weiss' tone. "Still found you."

"Spare me the drivel," Weiss replied, still not opening the door fully. Blake watched her pinch the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger.

"I'd been under the impression we'd decided the whole 'asshole heiress' gimmick wasn't fun for anyone." Blake tilted her head, crossing her arms against her chest. "This behaviour of yours doesn't bother me, but Ruby is beside herself with worry. You couldn't even throw her a bone?"

Weiss' eyes narrowed, a dangerous sign Blake didn't have the luxury of heeding. "I've been busy."

"Busy? Or just avoiding her?" 

For half a dozen heartbeats, Blake was certain Weiss would simply slam the door shut in her face, adult behaviour be damned. However, Weiss seemed to think better of it, instead jerking the door open to gracelessly permit Blake entry. 

Frowning, Blake ducked beneath the copious webbing of yellow police tape. She dusted off her thigh-length leather jacket as she straightened, concealing the critical look she ran over her friend with motion. Weiss was still dressed in what she'd left the apartment in the night prior, and the dark circles beneath her eyes spoke volumes. 

She hadn't slept a wink--she and Ruby were far more alike than either would care to admit. 

"How'd you know to find me here?" Weiss asked finally, pushing the warehouse door shut behind them with a soft click, and to Blake's ears, the timbre of her voice was oddly cracked.

"You dive headfirst into business the moment your life gets difficult." Blake gestured to her with a hand, because the situation spoke for itself. She tucked her hands back in her pockets, shaking her head in mild disgust. "Wasn't exactly tough to figure out you'd end up here, banging your head against the metaphorical wall."

"I thought I could get a head start," Weiss replied, her voice flat and weary.

"When you're about to faint if a Grimm so much as sneezes in your general direction?" Blake arched an eyebrow. "Daring."

Weiss scowled at her, and the flash of anger in her eyes was unmistakable as she snapped, "Would you stop it?" 

"I'm sorry, you generally have a better head on your shoulders than this, so perhaps I'm expecting too much." Blake shrugged, not feeling particularly charitable toward her prickly, bad-tempered teammate--not after how Ruby had been, just hours gone. "My idea was far more flattering than Ruby's, for what it's worth. She wanted to start with shallow graves and slabs in the morgue."

It was testing, bait for a reaction and nothing more. Weiss' expression flickered, guilty and muted, and she looked away from Blake, her arms crossed defensively against her chest. A weak reaction, but a reaction all the same. Weiss cared for Ruby, more than she ever felt safe to admit to--but that had been a quiet fact for years. 

Now, it seemed that even was out of the question, but why would the situation have changed in the past dozen hours? Blake exhaled, suddenly feeling incredibly tired. 

This was not going to be easy on either of them. Silent, Blake watched Weiss for a long moment, her mind working to figure out the best way to approach this whole mess. Finally, she took a slow, quiet step toward her, resting her hand on Weiss' shoulder. 

"Weiss, what are you doing out here?"

"Crime scene analysis." Weiss jerked her shoulder away from Blake's hand, her gaze cutting toward the warehouse's interior. "Or, analysis of whatever is _left_."

"You know what I meant." Blake studied Weiss' expression, the set to her shoulders--it didn't just speak of frustration, it spoke of fear. "What was last night's call?"

Weiss didn't spare her a look, shaking her head just the once. "It's nothing."

Blake laughed beneath her breath at the sheer absurdity of this conversation, and she couldn't quite keep the disgust from her voice as she said, "You're a very bad liar for a Schnee at the best of times, and you're even worse when you're stressed." 

That was enough to seize Weiss' attention, something ugly and wrathful stirring behind her eyes as she snarled, "Excuse me?"

"You didn't come home last night. Doesn't exactly seem like the call was 'nothing'." Blake looked her up and down, her jaw working. She'd supported Weiss' agency in this, but this wasn't agency--this was something far more destructive, and she wasn't about to enable it any longer. "Weiss, you _know_ I understand--but this has gone on long enough."

"If you've come here to lecture me on the stupidity of keeping secrets, save your breath." Weiss turned her back on Blake, moving deeper into the warehouse. "I'm not interested."

"At least you realise it's stupidity. You're already leagues ahead of where I was."

Blake sighed when Weiss didn't respond, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides. Growling beneath her breath, she shoved them back into her pockets. She'd really spent far too much time with Yang, if she was seriously contemplating the merits of simply knocking sense into Weiss' head with her fists instead of her words. 

Out of the corner of her eye, however, Blake spotted something hidden amongst empty, discarded boxes. Was that sewer access, from _within_ the premises? Abandoning Weiss to her frustrating personal crisis for the moment, Blake drew closer, examining the exposed beams of the warehouse's inner structure with an eye for detail. 

Perhaps there was an unauthorised extension made to the warehouse, years ago, and Mantle's council had never had it together long enough to bring down hammer...

Weiss tracked her movements as Blake drew Gambol Shroud, and after a few moments of indecision, joined Blake in kneeling beside the manhole's cover. 

"What're you doing?" she asked, her voice low, but Blake didn't waste her breath on an answer. 

Instead, Blake dug the sharpened edge of Gambol Shroud's sheath beneath the manhole cover, prying it up and off. As she leaned down, the smell of sewerage was enough to make her eyes water, and she spied an array of red lights throughout the tunnel. Machinery shifted, and the unmistakable, ear-splitting metallic hum of weapons charging filled the air. 

Blake slammed the iron cover back down over the sewer entry--she supposed she had to give Vanta credit, it was a far more advanced defence system than she'd imagined. While she'd seen more than enough of the Mantle fence to figure out how the city defended against land incursions by Grimm, she'd wondered how they handled Grimm appearing in the plundered Dust caverns beneath the city, too. 

Blake finally looked across to Weiss, still lingering at her side but watching her with a twisted, unhappy scowl. 

"And did you see anything of worth down there, or was this just another colossal waste of time?"

Blake shrugged, in no mood to play along with Weiss' venom as she climbed to her feet, sheathing Gambol Shroud back on her back. "You know what they say about curiosity and cats. Just seeing if there was any way our murderer could infiltrate from beneath."

"Heat activated defence systems." Weiss snorted beneath her breath, and after a moment, she accepted Blake's offered hand, rising with a low groan. "Nothing like Atlas' network, but a breach from beneath Mantle would have been rather obvious."

Blake's lips twitched in a smile. "Just a thought."

Weiss didn't seem to share her amusement, her mouth twisting as she said, "Think harder, then. We're not here to dally."

"Just here to avoid our problems?" Blake asked, her tone even and balanced and not at all like she wanted to strangle her friend. "Or just to avoid Ruby?" 

"Do you have to do this?" Weiss shot back, the snap of cold anger behind her eyes returning as she rounded on Blake, jabbing two fingers into Blake's chest as she advanced. "I have more than enough going on in my life without you prying into matters that are frankly none of your concern--"

Weiss cut off at the sound of rubble shifting, debris crumbling in on itself from somewhere outside the warehouse. Blake cocked her head, listening intently to the creak of rusted iron, the way the entire structure groaned beneath the force of the wind. Detecting nothing unusual, Blake turned her gaze to Weiss, cautious. 

"Weiss?" she tried, her voice low. 

Weiss jerked, scowl back at Blake as she returned to the present, but not before Blake caught the flash of painful fear in her eyes. 

"It's--it's nothing." Weiss pressed the heel of her palm to her temple, a huff of weary laughter escaping her lips. "Just my imagination, I'm sure."

Blake frowned, and lowering her voice, she tried to soften her approach. "Weiss, it's okay."

"What makes you think you can say that?" Weiss' voice was low and strained, and she looked into the warehouse interior. 

"What makes you so sure it won't be?" Blake asked, and at the savage glare Weiss threw over her shoulder, she held her hands up, yielding. "Fine. Everything is terrible and your life is a mess. Does that make you feel any better?"

"No." Weiss sighed, low and nearly soundless, and if Blake hadn't been watching her so closely, she would have missed the way Weiss' shoulders had sagged, just for an instant. 

"Weiss. You aren't on your own." Blake hesitated, wetting her lips, trying to think of _something_ to get her friend to quit stonewalling her-- _all_ of them. "If it's easier… You don't need to tell Ruby or Yang anything yet. Just talk to _me._ What exactly would it hurt? I already know a good bit of what's going on."

Weiss didn't look at her, moving deeper into the warehouse. "We've got our job to do, Blake."

Blake watched her, frustration bubbling hot beneath her surface-deep calm. A part of her wanted so badly to push Weiss, force the issue, make her _see_ what she was doing to the others, but she knew Weiss well enough to know how fatal a misstep that would be. 

_I can't force her to do anything, or she'll fight back even harder. She needs to come around on her own._ Blake tipped her head back, taking a deep breath, before she followed behind Weiss and into the wider expanse of Lawson's warehouse. 

"Exploring a sectioned-off crime scene of a grisly murder--how very conductive for a heart to heart," Blake observed, lengthening her stride to catch up. "I think you're improving."

"Are you here to help, or to make witty commentary at my expense?"

Blake looked Weiss up and down, her tone pitched mild and deadpan as she replied, "Please. Feel free to lift the burden of conversation from me, since you're just so much better at."

Weiss' answering gaze was like ice, the twist to her lips razor-sharp. "Surely you can fish for answers better than that. Have you grown rusty, negotiating with backwater hicks and doddering village elders?"

Blake rolled her eyes, before shooting her friend a tiny smile. "Just warming you up."

Weiss snorted beneath her breath, as entirely disgusted by the comment as intended. "Do I look like I care for those jokes right now?"

"No," Blake replied, casting a careful look about the interior of Lawson's warehouse then, her pace slow as she moved ahead. Stacks up stacks of SDC shipment crates lined the walls, and at the very rear of the loading dock was a truck, the back of it still hanging open. Turning back to Weiss, she added, "Looks like you need a friend, however. Or maybe a hug."

"From you?" Weiss looked disbelieving at the very suggestion.

"We both know you only accept the highest-quality hugs." Blake shrugged, and she didn't even need to mention the name "Ruby" to see Weiss' jaw tighten. Satisfied she'd hit that fatal flaw in Weiss' walls of ice dead-on, she added softly, "You know, you didn't have to blow off your trip to the fence with her."

Weiss froze for the space of a heartbeat, before she tilted her head back. 

"The trip to the fence." Weiss' voice was low, and Blake caught the fleeting look of devastation in her expression before it was subsumed by ice just as quickly. 

_Weiss, don't do this,_ Blake thought, but aloud, she told Weiss, "There was enough time in the day to do this and have some fun."

Weiss laughed then, bitter and short. "Speak for yourself."

"Then I'm all ears." Blake let the corner of her mouth lift in a small smile, encouraging. "All four of them, in fact."

Weiss didn't reply, huddling deeper into her coat, and Blake's gaze tracked her progress as she approached the dozens of SDC crates stacked up against the warehouse wall. She looked worn thin, in this poor warehouse light, standing before proof of her family's monopoly, the white sigil splashed over each of the crates stark and pale. 

Blake suddenly felt it, sharp in the pit of her stomach. 

This wasn't a game--the stakes were real. Weiss was hurting, and in that moment, Blake could practically see the blood in the water. 

"Weiss? Look, I'm--"

"The Dust crates." Weiss' voice was sharp, the line of tension in her tone near pleading as she tried to wrest the topic back to the far less threatening topic of the job. "I spent nearly two hours checking each one of them against the records Lawson's crew were keeping in their office." 

Blake eyed the crates, ill-gotten cargo stolen through Lawson's operation. There had to have been weeks worth of goods, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of lien, all of it stacked up in their secret warehouse. She had to wonder at the logistics of getting so much off-site from the main depot, without rousing suspicions. Perhaps there were more accomplices within the SDC, perhaps even some from within Mantle's corrupt and rusting law enforcement. 

"And nothing was missing?" Blake asked finally, looking across to Weiss. 

Weiss grimaced, gesturing wearily to the array of crates before them. "Not even a single uncut crystal."

"Yang's theory about the hitman was an interesting one. It was well-within the bounds of probability that Lawson and his team had been detected." Blake nodded slowly, her mind working as she approached, running the tip of her gloved finger across the white symbol painted on the steel. "Any hitman worth employing at the SDC could have been able to quietly take care of the problem. With a bit of time and imagination, I have no doubt those Grimm injuries could have been... replicated. Deathstalkers aren't even native to Solitas." 

"The weather is a little too brutal for them, yes. I'm pleasantly surprised you remembered that part of Professor Port's lectures."

"I do have the occasional nightmare about them," Blake allowed, shooting Weiss a small grin. Weiss returned it, hesitant but there all the same. 

"Time. That's the crux of it." Weiss' smile faded, and she rested her hand on her hip, her eyes narrowing. She looked back over her shoulder, toward a room off to the side of the warehouse. "I found some receipts. Lawson personally picked up some additional ammunition and supplies, just an hour or so before he was found. Probably by one of his buyers-to-be."

"So an SDC hitman needed to quietly take care of the team, replicate the injuries inflicted by Grimm not even native to the area, and then get out before someone caught them in the act in less than two hours--and they didn't even take the time to reacquire the goods?" Blake sighed, tilting her head back in frustration. "It's a lot of effort to frame an existing threat, for very little apparent payoff."

"That, and all this Dust _should_ have been immediately seized as evidence by Mantle's law enforcement when as soon as Lawson's death was discovered." Weiss drew a breath. "That runs counter to any goals of reclamation of lost goods--and I'd hazard a guess that said authorities have no intention of registering this Dust as _official evidence._ "

Blake paused, the track of her thoughts suddenly derailed. "You're saying you believe the SDC doesn't even _know_ that Jett Lawson's team has been caught with a fortune of stolen Dust? That Mantle isn't even planning on giving it back?"

"Exactly. My father tailors his approach based on opponent--he'd not have wasted the energy thinking of such a _gambit_ for lowlives like Lawson." Weiss' mouth twisted, a complicated emotion of anger, frustration and self-recrimination flashing in her eyes. 

Blake sighed, casting Weiss a pitying look. "Your father..."

Weiss stiffened, her gaze cutting toward Blake--a warning. 

_The blaze of glory of a breakdown._ Yang's words from just hours ago rattled around in Blake's head, insistent and unhelpful. She tugged her scarf up over her mouth, trying to hide the flat, unhappy line of her mouth. Yang was more right than she knew. 

As Weiss moved to examine what looked like an impressively large bloodstain by the truck parked in the loading dock, Blake turned her attention to the rest of the warehouse. She moved slowly, her footsteps echoing in the quiet warehouse, listening for a moment to the whistle of the wind through the gaps in the rusted, corrugated iron. 

For all that Lawson's team was running an illicit smuggling operation, the whole interior looked almost cosy--a kitchenette had been set up, complete with an electric kettle, a bar fridge and a microwave, and resting against the wall beside it was a gas generator. That gave Blake pause. Just who were they expecting their customers to be, if they were so certain they could establish a base like that?

She looked back toward where Weiss was examining the interior cabin of the truck, entirely absorbed in her own observations, before she turned her attention to the very rear of the warehouse. She spotted a pallet of boxes, spilled just out of sight behind the vehicle, something scrawled underneath--

Closing the distance in a dozen quick strides, Blake carefully shifted one of the boxes out of the way. She dipped down to one knee, drawing her scroll from her pocket and snapping a photo of what she'd found, before drawing her gloved fingers across the rough concrete surface of the floor. 

_White chalk,_ Blake realised, rubbing her gloved thumb and forefinger together as she examined the substance. Exhaling, she shifted another box away, and this time, she could make out the sheen on the ground, trace amounts of red wax clinging to the concrete in spite of the candle having long been removed. 

She pressed her palm to her temple, trying to think around the headache steadily forming in the front of her skull. The whole case was just getting worse and worse--the ichor Ruby had reported finding in Lawson's injuries flashed to mind. Now _this_?

"Weiss." Blake rocked back on her heels, wetting her lips as she listened to the wind howling outside. She suddenly felt incredibly cold. "I've got something."

Weiss didn't waste a moment, and Blake had a vague sense of the truck door slamming shut before Weiss joined her. Blake pushed another box to the side, revealing another chalk-drawn symbol. 

"This... this is a very interesting set of symbols," Blake said, finally looking up to Weiss. 

"I've not seen anything like this before." Weiss frowned, her expression troubled. She'd never been comfortable admitting to a lack of knowledge in any area. "You're far more widely read than I am--have you?"

"You do yourself disservice." Blake sighed then, pointing to the smudged chalk lines. "A lot of the detail has been scuffed away, but the markings seem vaguely reminiscent of Mistralian reality-fold runes."

Weiss' blue eyes sharpened, despite the disbelief in her expression. "A wormhole? In _Mantle_?"

Blake wasn't about to commit to the idea entirely, given she wasn't exactly an expert. "Hard to say. Doesn't look quite like the set I've seen before."

"Hard to believe you've seen any at all."

"Salem's domain had an awful lot of surprises," Blake replied, and Weiss began to frown once more. "Something to keep in mind, perhaps?"

Weiss exhaled, her lips flat and unhappy as she pointed out, "None of the other reports indicate the investigators found anything like this."

"So the question is--did our murderer get sloppy, or has the lead been planted?" Blake looked back down to the chalk, trying to imagine what they symbols had looked like, without half of the detail wiped away. A thought struck her. "Or was this another fact that ended up either redacted or missed?"

"You know, I'd thought you were being... _overcautious,_ when you mentioned wanting to speak to the past investigator." Weiss' voice was soft, and there was a reluctant twist of dryness to it as she added, "On a second thought, I'd very much like a word with them, myself."

Satisfied, Blake offered Weiss a smile, before looking back to the symbols on the concrete. As she struggled to resolve the scuffed-out runes a little better, she felt herself pause. 

"That's interesting--those are claw marks." 

Weiss knelt, her eyes narrowed as she tried to get a better look. Blake herself could barely make them out, tiny amounts of dust and grime scraped clean away to expose new concrete beneath. Weiss cursed beneath her breath, fumbling her scroll out of her back pocket, using the flashlight on it to throw the marks into sharp relief. 

Weiss' eyebrows rose. "They've barely made an indent."

"It was walking slowly," Blake said, hesitant, and as the full impact of that notion hit her, she closed her eyes for a moment. "It had him trapped. Maybe even all of them. How is that possible? Why didn't they run?"

Weiss was silent, her expression worried, still holding the scroll steady to examine the marks. Nodding to her, Blake rose to her feet, moving slowly to track the direction of the claw marks. She followed them around the side of the truck, the path looping wide and almost... relaxed. It returned to where Lawson had met his messy, final end, and Blake could see the outline of where he'd fallen, drawn in chalk. 

He'd been found in pieces, she recalled from the report, much of his body missing. Blake wondered--would there be more crime scene photos to tape up on the wall, when the Mantle detectives finally gave them over? 

"The blood splatter is violent," Weiss was saying as Blake tuned back in, pointing to the top of the truck's canopy. "It goes all the way up." 

Blake murmured beneath her breath, thoughtful, her gaze tracking the pattern of the spatter. Almost absently, she asked, "Did you find any sign of ropes? The report mentioned some variety of ligature marks." 

"Nothing." Weiss huffed beneath her breath, crossing her arms against her chest and tilting her head. "No sign of spent Dust, either. I hate to say this, but this whole thing isn't making any more sense to me."

"Likewise," Blake said, dropping flat to the ground, and despite the overpowering stench of old blood, she lingered. Carefully, she reached beneath the truck, her fingertips catching on-- _something_. Clasping the item delicately between her gloved thumb and forefinger, she drew it out into the open and pushed her way back to her knees, her eyebrows raising as she examined the broken truck mirror beneath the dim warehouse lighting. 

The surface was cracked, and Blake's own reflection peered back at her in chaotic shards. 

"A mirror," Blake told Weiss, her voice quiet. She looked back down to where Lawson's body had been found. When she'd seen the flow and splatter of blood, she'd believed him reaching in vain for his weapon. Had he instead been reaching for this mirror? 

"Torn right from the truck," Weiss said, leaning over Blake's shoulder to get a better look. "You can see the stressmarks in the plastic. Judging by the fingerprints, Lawson twisted it right off the truck himself."

Blake nodded--bloodied fingerprints smudged the shattered surface, but amidst the damage, however, she could make out something far darker than dried blood. Her breath caught.

"Ichor," she murmured, resisting the urge to recoil back away from the substance. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she looked to Weiss, still lingering over her shoulder. "We need to report this to both Ruby and Vanta. Do you have any evidence bags on you?"

"Implying I'm ever unprepared," Weiss answered with a scoff, reaching for the Dust supplies pocket at her hip. For all her mildly caustic remarks, her expression looked ill as she examined the mirror herself, staring at her own reflection for a long moment before bagging the evidence up. 

Blake straightened from her crouch with a groan, stretching to rearrange her spine into something far less painful. Weiss was quiet as she passed the mirror back to Blake, moving to examine the kitchenette Blake had passed over earlier. 

The warehouse was silent and cold, and against the rusted steel roof, Blake heard the first patters of rain. A shiver ran down her spine, and she drew her leather jacket about her body a little more closely. Weiss, however, had lingered as she'd started to examine the generator, her frown deepening. 

"That's--I didn't see that before," Weiss said, nodding to something next to the dusty, unused power outlets set into the wall of the warehouse. 

Blake's eyes narrowed as she drew closer--it looked like a new cable outlet, set into the wall of the kitchenette. She paused, re-examining the thought. A _new_ cable outlet, in a warehouse long without power? The realisation hit her with powerful, breath-taking clarity. A hidden security camera. Nobody had mentioned a _camera_ or footage or--

Her gaze sharpened. Maybe Lawson and his team weren't as complacent as Blake had begun to believe. 

"I don't suppose that feeds anywhere close by?" Blake asked finally, turning to Weiss with an arched eyebrow.

Weiss' smile was sharp and victorious, and she gestured toward the warehouse office. "I have a tiny suspicion it might."

###

As luck would have it, they found the storage device linked to the camera hidden in the office, slotted into a false panel beneath the battered old desk. While Weiss had grumbled beneath her breath, a vague and slightly bitter running commentary as she'd tried to figure out a way to view the footage, Blake had given her an excuse about a call to update Yang and Ruby on their progress.

Weiss hadn't looked eager to sit in on such a conversation, the line of tension in her jaw growing ever more pronounced as she'd fumbled with one of the ancient computer screens on the desk. Feeling confident enough to leave Weiss to her devices for the moment, Blake had made her way to the next district over, weaving her way through the crowds and tapping out a dozen or so messages to Yang as she'd stood in line at one of the cafes. 

It was honestly too bad Yang actually hadn't been able to talk--she and Ruby were on their way to the Mantle border to 'let off a little steam', as she'd put it. With how obstinate Weiss could be at the best of times and having had little luck to speak of, Blake could have used some advice on varying her approach. 

But Ruby needed Yang's efforts today, not Blake, and it was Ruby who'd been hurt the worst by Weiss' actions. Blake just needed to figure out a way to get that through to Weiss--and for that, she needed to find the right opening in the walls of ice her friend had reconstructed in the space of hours. 

By the time Blake returned to the warehouse office, a take-away cardboard coffeecup in each hand, Weiss had finally gotten the ball rolling, the camera chip plugged into the back of her scroll and hooked up to the screen on the desk. 

"So, how goes the long and boring task of sifting through spycam footage?" Blake asked, setting down her tea on the desk to free up one of her hands, before dragging one of the other chairs in the office next to the one Weiss had commandeered. 

"Very long and very boring. Shocking, I know," Weiss replied, an edge of weariness to her voice as she pinched the bridge of her nose. As Blake passed her the other cardboard mug, she leaned back, eying it suspiciously. "What's that?"

As sorely tempted as Blake was to make a joke, she refrained, merely offering Weiss a shrug and the truth. "Coffee. You look like you really need a caffeine hit."

"If it's anything close to the usual Mantle attempt at coffee, I think I'd prefer my headache." Weiss' expression was sour as she held it up to eye-level, as if by sight alone she could discern the quality of the brew. 

"You're the least gracious friend I have." Blake's lips twitched in a tiny smile, finally taking her spot in the chair next to Weiss. "Not even a paltry 'thank you'?"

"The jury is still out." Weiss nodded back to the blurry, pixelated footage paused on the battered old computer screen, taking a grudging sip of coffee. "While you were wasting lien on uninspired hacks behind a milk steamer, I completed analysis of the days immediately preceding the attack."

 _No complaints about the coffee. It must be passable, or Weiss is simply too tired to care._ Aloud, Blake said, "You waited for me to begin the main event. I'm touched, Weiss, truly I am."

Weiss rolled her eyes, wrapping both of her gloved hands about the coffee, her only visible concession to the cold. "I merely decided I'd save myself the trouble of needing to view it twice."

Blake took a sip of her own tea, the over-steeped tannins blooming bitter on her tongue. "Before we'd then exhaustively pour over every blurry frame, on the off-chance we've missed nothing short of a subliminal message?"

For all her surliness, Weiss actually looked amused. "Precisely."

Blake waved her tea at the screen, reclining back in her rusty, perished chair. They were both as comfortable as they were ever going to be, so... "Fine. Let's get this over with, before you actually do pass out from your lack of sleep."

Weiss' glare could have brought on the next ice age, but with a long-suffering sigh, she hit play.

Blake tilted her head as Lawson's team assembled on the morning of the murder, watching three of them laugh and joke--Jett Lawson, obviously, but it was nice to put some faces to the names of Bayton Yaaj and Oliver Raines. It seemed surreal, to be watching what were the final hours of the team, and Blake couldn't help the way her thoughts flickered back to her own team. 

They'd acted in much the same way, just the night before. It was frightening how quickly that had ultimately changed. 

"It all seems normal so far," Blake said, glancing instead to Weiss. Taking the hint for what it was, Weiss increased the playback to triple-time. 

"I concede, the team seems tightly-knit enough--for a pack of thieves." Weiss' lip curled, and she took a long swallow of coffee. "But... compared to what I've observed over the past few days for them, today, they're on edge. The tall one--Raines--keeps checking his weapon. And right now, Yaaj looks like he's half a breath from tearing into Lawson."

"A particularly snippy teammate. I can't imagine what that's like to deal with," Blake replied, her tone wry as she leaned forward, hitting pause on Weiss' scroll to get a better look at the man who'd turned up so very, very dead just two days gone. 

Lawson was a big man, judging by the footage, his face pockmarked with barely-healed scarring, which was... interesting. Blake reached for her scroll, frowning as she drew his hunting registration up on the screen, the only clean identification they'd been given. 

The picture should have been just a few years old, surely, but the difference was remarkable. 

"Doesn't look a whole lot like his profile," Blake observed, tilting her scroll to show Weiss. 

Weiss' eyes narrowed, and she looked back to where Lawson's image was still paused on the screen. "Those look like Dust reaction scars on his face. Within the past year, I'd say."

Blake slipped her scroll back in her pocket, thoughtful. "The autopsy report mentioned Dust burns on his right cheek."

"The ones I saw yesterday were far more... fresh." Weiss shook her head, her lips twisting in discomfort. "Hard to mistake the difference."

Blake hit play on Weiss' scroll again, her gaze intent on the footage as they watched the hours flicker by at triple the speed, the members of Lawson's team buzzing about the warehouse with an almost feverish intensity. The four of them came and went, loading Dust into the back of the truck in preparation for... what?

"Lawson looks even more worried," Weiss remarked as Lawson trudged back into view, a woman trailing just a few paces behind. "Vermillia Stratworth, I suppose. I wonder where _she's_ been?" 

Lawson and Stratworth lingered by the truck for what had to be ten minutes real-time, and in spite of the fuzziness of the footage, it was hard to deny Weiss' observation. 

"They _both_ look concerned--Stratworth keeps checking her scroll, right there." Blake looked to Weiss, frowning. "What do you think they're waiting on?"

"The buyer?" Weiss guessed, offering Blake a shrug as she drained the remainder of her coffee. 

Blake narrowed her eyes, shaking her head. The buyer was one option, but... "The rest of their team, perhaps. It's too bad this feed is visual only. I'd give a lot to know what they're saying."

On a whim, Blake scrubbed back the footage to the last appearance of both Yaaj and Raines, marking down the timestamp on her own scroll, before hitting play again. 

Weiss tilted her head, her blue eyes sharp as she read the significance immediately. "You believe Yaaj and Raines are already dead."

"If we don't see them appear again, it's an outcome worth considering." Blake's eyes tracked Lawson and Stratworth as they moved about the warehouse, drawing their weapons from wherever they'd had them stashed. 

Just two hours before his body was found, Lawson left the warehouse to visit the hunter resupply depot Weiss had talked about earlier, leaving Stratworth alone in the warehouse--on-edge, and armed to the teeth. She kept checking the perimeter, and as the day faded toward dusk, the quality feed grew deteriorated further, the details beginning to blur and pixelate--poor light, and even poorer technology. 

As Stratworth looked down at her scroll, mashing at the buttons, Blake said, "They were expecting trouble."

Weiss didn't deny it, but her expression was troubled. "Then why are there no signs of a fight?"

Blake opened her mouth to reply with a guess, but as Stratworth threw her scroll against the wall, her face a mask of terrified rage, she paused. 

"Wait--what's that?" 

Stratworth was staring at the corner of the room, her knives in hand, her anger fading to shock. She began to back away, off-frame, and abruptly, dark pixelation flooded Weiss' scroll. 

"Shit," Weiss snarled, her grasp on her scroll tightening convulsively until Blake was certain she'd follow Stratworth's lead and hurl it against the wall. 

Blake couldn't deny she wasn't feeling just a little cheated, either. She leaned back in her chair, shaking her head. "Of course. It just couldn't be that easy." 

They watched in tense silence as the minutes in the footage blurred by, and by the time the feed righted itself, Vermillia Stratworth was gone. 

"She just... vanished?" Weiss asked, her tone one of disbelief as she shook her head. The line of her jaw was tight. "We've been over the warehouse top to bottom. If she was attacked here, there'd be a sign."

"Did she run, then?" Blake wondered aloud, finally taking another sip of her lukewarm tea to rid herself of the sudden dryness in her throat. She had no doubt in her mind that they'd witnessed Stratworth's final moments on Remnant--full of anger, then of terror.

Had she believed her team abandoned her to her fate?

"So this... _Grimm._ " Weiss' tone twisted about the word, as if she couldn't quite reconcile the facts in her head. "It takes them, and then..." 

Blake watched Lawson finally sprint back into frame, his expression terrified. She nodded. "Why leave _him,_ then?"

He searched throughout the warehouse, the office, the back of the truck, looking in vain for his missing team. The minutes stretched on before he finally slowed, his face stark and pale. Right on cue, the footage began to pixelate and blur. 

Blake could not believe such an effect was the pure coincidence of faulty equipment, and she and Weiss waited in silence for the footage to right itself. By the time the image cleared, the timestamp within the video had shifted a whole half hour, and Lawson lay in pieces on the warehouse floor. 

_And there's no clue how he got there,_ Blake noted, dark and bitter as she leaned back in her chair. 

Weiss, on the other hand, looked ill. 

"That static," she said, wetting her lips. She cast Blake a troubled look. "The way the footage jumps. I saw it earlier in some of the footage, but I'd thought nothing of it. Was it watching them? Each time?"

"The 'Stalker'." Blake exhaled, long and low as she buried her face in her hand for a moment. She'd had a bad feeling about this case last night, but this... "Guess we know what the name means. But its presence was strong enough to disrupt the feed?"

"It's not the first time the presence of Grimm has interfered with technology." Weiss looked down at her scroll, her blue eyes distant. "Without the sheer force of the CCT to boost transmissions, the nations can't communicate, after all. It's been long theorised that this has been due to the presence of Grimm."

Blake's gaze cut back to Weiss, waiting. There was an edge to her teammate's voice, reluctant and loathing. 

"And there is only one company on Remnant that might be linked to Lawson's gang, and would also have technology powerful enough not to be so... affected by a Grimm." Weiss gestured to the brutal image still on the blurry computer screen, her mouth a flat, unhappy line. "Even one that could do this."

Blake leaned forward, propping her elbow on her knees. "The SDC."

Weiss snorted beneath her breath, and there was a touch of ice to her expression that Blake had been sure had started to thaw. Blake closed her eyes, steeling her shoulders. 

_For Ruby,_ she reminded herself, and aloud, she said, "Weiss. Talk to me."

Weiss' eyes narrowed, and she began to unplug her scroll from the screen with sharp, jerky motions. "There's nothing to say."

Blake shot her a sideways look, shaking her head just the once. "So the lead goes cold, because you're afraid of your father?"

Weiss bristled, her gaze snapping back to Blake's in white-hot, flashpoint anger as she snarled, "I'm not _afraid_ of him!"

"Just like you weren't afraid of what Vanta might have spilled, yesterday at the clocktower?" Blake asked, a hot, retaliatory anger to her tone she couldn't quite temper. If a gentle approach wasn't going to work with Weiss, then... "That's what that outburst really was, wasn't it?"

Weiss froze, but before Blake could push the topic, she rose to her feet. "Just when I thought we were done with this--"

"No. We're not done, Weiss." Blake rose to her feet as well, deliberately putting herself between her friend and the nearest exit. "You're a mess. All these secrets and lies are driving you insane--"

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Weiss snapped back, and the anger in her eyes only flared. 

"For what it's worth, actually, I _do._ Ruby told me you both talked yesterday." Blake crossed her arms, the hair on the back of her neck prickling, her ears laid flat back. "You said you went back home. You told her you were disowned."

Weiss' expression flickered, and her tone was practically dripping acid as she scoffed, "Ruby doesn't know how to keep things quiet."

"Anyone with half an interest in Atlesian politics would have figured that out, and you know it."

"I had to give her _something_ ," Weiss said, refusing to meet Blake's eyes, but as she continued, her tone began to soften. "She had too many questions, and I..."

Weiss stared at the scroll in her hands, looking through it, her mouth twisting. There was a tremble in her hands that Blake hadn't been able to unsee--Weiss was exhausted, and it was growing clearer by the hour that she was running on fumes alone. 

"I had to give her something," Weiss repeated, just above a whisper, her expression lost.

"But a lie of omission?" Blake asked, gentle. She hated to see Weiss like this, she hated that she had to push the matter. But what choice did she have? "You're not an idiot, Weiss. You know how this will end."

Weiss sharpened, her gaze like ice as she looked back to Blake. "Then that's how it ends. Stop pushing this, Blake."

"Weiss, don't do this." Blake reached out, clasping Weiss' shoulder, her voice gentle. "Don't wall us out. You need the team. _Ruby_ needs you."

"You mention her name, as if that'll change my mind. As if she isn't why I need to do this." There was an edge to Weiss' voice, sharp and desperate. "Blake. She's barely holding herself together." 

Blake's eyes flickered up and down her friend. "As opposed to you, the very picture of rational coping mechanisms and wonderful mental health?"

Weiss ripped her shoulder from Blake's grasp, rounding on her, her teeth bared. "I _refuse_ to be the one to drown her--not when she's been through so much already!"

"Then what do you call last night?"

Weiss flinched, a pause in the onslaught of a storm. Quietly, she asked, "What do you _mean_?"

"You say you're not going to drown her, but give her more credit, Weiss! She _knows_ you held back! She knows something is wrong!" Blake drew a breath, her ears flat back against her skull. She'd found Ruby bleeding all over the couch, still desperate to find Weiss--and for what? "What do you think that's doing to her, to your friendship?"

Weiss took a step back, her eyes narrowing as she looked to the side, her jaw clenched stubbornly. "Blake--"

"Not this time," Blake snapped, shaking her head. "I won't let you run away from this conversation. I care about Ruby too much. I care about _you._ "

"You shouldn't." Weiss' voice was flat. 

"You don't get to decide that." Blake watched her teammate for a moment--the slump in her shoulders, the way she wouldn't meet Blake's eyes. Then it struck her. "Is that what this is about? Don't try to tell me you're pretending that you think you're doing this to protect her. Hurt her to protect her. Sounds like a chapter from a bad novel." 

Once upon a time, Blake had tried to fool herself the same way with Adam. In the end, it had simply left her team woefully underprepared for the sort of person he was. 

Weiss, however, hadn't argued. 

"God." Blake exhaled, her voice low and disbelieving. "I'm right, aren't I? What happened?"

For a long moment, Weiss stared at her, her teeth clenched as though she was about to fight to the very bitter end for her right to make the world's most toxic self-sacrifices--before her shoulders sagged. 

"Last night, I received a reminder of what's at stake, how far he can reach..." Weiss' eyes were distant, her expression almost shellshocked. "And just how much more I have to lose. There's so little time."

"Weiss--look at me." Blake took Weiss' shoulders in her hands, giving her a gentle shake as she stared somewhere else entirely. "Talk to me. What do you mean by time?" 

Weiss blinked, her expression closing up once more as she tried to pull away from Blake, "We've got a job to do--"

Blake held on, defiant. "And we'll do it. But you and I need to talk about this. About _everything_."

Weiss swallowed, wetting her lips. "I can't." 

"Can't, or won't?" Blake asked, frowning, prepared for a fight--but as Weiss' expression flickered again, so close to breaking, she realised Weiss had nearly hit her limit. 

"Does it even matter?" Weiss countered after a long moment, her voice soft and entirely bitter.

"Of course it matters, Weiss," Blake said, and it was so very clear why Weiss was asking at all. "Only someone like Jacques would think that _choice_ doesn't matter. It does. We both know that. _Ruby_ knows that."

Weiss inhaled, sharp and shuddering. "Stop bringing her up."

"Because I've got a point about her you can't just ignore?"

"Because you don't get to _use_ her against me like some sort of-- _weapon!_ " Weiss snarled, rallying that toxic, irrational anger as she tried to push Blake backwards. To pick a fight, to gain better access to the exit, only Weiss could know. 

Blake refused to budge, however, deflecting the wild shove with a disgusted forearm. "Weiss, she's my friend too, and if you'd seen her this morning, you'd understand how badly you've messed up! You'd be lining up to hurt whoever upset her, if that person were anyone but you! Have you even answered a single one of her texts this morning?"

Weiss drew back. "That's not any of your--"

"You know what you're doing is complete bullshit, and the only reason I'm giving you a chance is because I know your life is a disaster!" Blake bared her teeth, shaking her head. "I know you're not heartless, despite what you pretend--"

"I'm _not_ heartless!" Weiss' voice cracked, and Blake fell silent. Weiss wet her lips, and her voice was soft but no less full of feeling as she added, "Even if there were times I wish I was."

Blake stared at her teammate, her friend. Weiss wasn't okay, just like Ruby, but the only way that could change was if she finally stopped fighting. And for Weiss, that was an anathema. Fighting was what she did--and not always against deserving targets. 

"I get it. Everything would be easier if we didn't need to deal with little things like feelings," Blake said, her voice low and gentle as she took her seat again. "But somehow we end up caring for people, despite knowing how badly things can go. How badly they can hurt us. How big of a weakness they really are."

Weiss' rage abruptly snuffed out, and she wrapped her arms around herself, miserable. Blake could see the tremble in her shoulders as she sank down into her chair. 

"But Weiss, I found it's better to have these people in our lives than not. Because as I keep telling you, you can't do this alone, and you're not just destroying yourself in your attempt, you're destroying _her._ " Blake exhaled, leaning back in her chair, and it was difficult not to find herself consumed by her own regret, even years later. "I've been there too, Weiss. Yang will carry the cost of my secrets for the rest of her life! And there's not a day that goes by that I don't wonder what would have happened, had I taken ownership of my problems."

Weiss didn't answer, staring wearily into the distance. Perhaps she wasn't even listening--but she was weakening. Blake couldn't let this go. Not when she was so close to getting through. It reminded her of another time, long ago in Menagerie, when Sun had made exactly the same point to her. 

"We owe it to the people that love us to reach out for help. We owe it to them to allow them to choose. You owe it to _Ruby_ not to make that choice for her."

Weiss went pale. 

_Choice._ For as long as Blake had known her, the very concept was like a silver bullet for Weiss, the last and surest argument. Blake had always used it sparingly--she knew far too much of what it was like, to have your weaknesses exposed and ripped open. 

It almost made her physically ill to do. If times were not so desperate, Blake would never have let it go this far. But her memories of Ruby's anguished expression in the early hours of the morning were just as vivid, just as terrifying. 

"That's not fair," Weiss ground out, her fingers twisting tight in her coat sleeves. 

Blake knew it wasn't, but she very rarely fought _fair_. 

"And yet neither of us can deny its truth." Blake looked at Weiss, sighing. Her expression softened. "Weiss. Ruby cares for you a lot. She'd choose you, every single time."

"I know." Weiss' voice was desperate and hoarse, and Blake felt a stab of alarm as her lip trembled, as her vice-like grasp on her own elbows tightened convulsively. 

Weiss was rapidly unravelling, and she sucked in a shaking breath. 

"Ruby cares about me and she _shouldn't_ if she had even one iota of self-preservation! She'd run! And she should. She doesn't deserve this. Any of this." Weiss swallowed, her words coming faster and faster, stumbling over themselves as the floodgates tore open. "Everything with Salem, and now _my father_ has it in for me and I can't stop this _bullshit_ from hurting everyone I care about! I either hurt them or that _bastard_ does--"

Blake held up a hand, trying to get her head around everything. "Calm down. Weiss, just breathe. Start from the beginning."

Uncertain and trembling, Weiss stared across at Blake--and then finally, she nodded. "If we do this, we need to take this somewhere secure," she said, her voice tight. 

Blake gestured around them, raising an eyebrow. "A deserted murder warehouse isn't secure?"

Weiss returned her gaze with a flat stare, the joke lost on her. It was then that Blake began to wonder--just how deep had the Schnee rabbit hole gone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More case information, and Weiss is finally making progress on letting her team in on what's happening. But where oh where does she stand with Ruby?
> 
> Next chapter is slated for two weeks from now - previously we've been on a week and a half cycle, but I've resolved to only post updates on weekends from here on out. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to comment so far on this! I really appreciate the love.


	9. The Elephant in the Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What better backdrop for a serious heart to heart between Yang and Ruby than a good, old-fashioned Grimm hunt? When it comes to communication, however, it takes two to tango, and Yang realises that both Ruby and Weiss have been complicit in the trainwreck.

"Oh my god, please tell me it isn't going to rain again," Yang growled, clutching her orange scarf to hold it secure, an icy gust of wind ripping right through her fleece-lined leather jacket as though it wasn't there at all.

Completely unimpressed with the ongoing weather shenanigans Mantle insisted on pulling, Yang cast a scowl toward the skies--all patchy, pale blues and threatening greys, the sunlight filtering thin and strained through the heavy cloud cover. She snorted beneath her breath, disgusted. Even the weather itself couldn't make up its damn mind. 

When she didn't hear Ruby make the effort of even a token response, Yang added, "Ugh, Mantle is the actual worst." She cast a sideways look toward her sister, trying to keep herself from frowning as they wound their way through one of Mantle's eastern abandoned districts. 

"You've only just noticed?" Still worn thin and exhausted by all that had happened during the early hours of the morning, Ruby didn't offer Yang a smile. Despite that, her words held the ghost of a teasing lilt as she said, "I guess you have spent the past couple of days cooped up in a nice, warm apartment."

Yang laughed, cuffing Ruby on the shoulder hard enough to earn a grunt and a glare, before catching her in a one-armed hug as they walked. Ruby squirmed, grumbling, but Yang held on tightly. 

"What exactly is your point, here? That I'm the only one smart enough to pick my battles?" Yang waved a hand toward the skies above them, to where the weather _still_ hadn't figured out if it was going to rain or not. Indecision really was the worst. "Look, I'm not exactly holding out for my chance to try out your sodden huntress impression. You really did look totally miserable."

Ruby only rolled her eyes, muttering beneath her breath, "At least I wasn't whining about it."

Yang was content to let that one slide without further comment, because that sort of back-sass was several leagues better than her sister's continuing quiet reticence. It could only mean Ruby's mood was improving--just not nearly as quickly as Yang had been holding out for. 

She released Ruby with one last warm squeeze, trailing a pace or so behind as they continued on through the smashed up and ruined streets, watching the whip and swirl of Ruby's fraying cloak in the freezing wind. Ruby had been wearing the same one for a good few years now, clasped to the side with a silver rose instead of at each shoulder, and--thank god, because Yang had been _really_ finding it hard not to voice her growing worry--Ruby had finally traded in her thin hoodies and jackets for the new, warmer gear she'd picked up with Weiss yesterday. 

Yang really did need to make time to thank Weiss for forcing the issue. With Ruby's insane metabolism contantly gnawing at her energy reserves, Mantle's failtastic weather had just been another burden on an already strained system. Yesterday evening, Yang had quickly figured out how badly Ruby had burned herself out, and then... 

Then, Blake had shaken her awake, and apparently she'd woken up in some nightmare dimension where things had gone _horribly_ pearshaped. 

When she'd intercepted Ruby, Yang had been gentle--deliberately so. Ruby had needed to calm down, find the headspace to step back from the nightmares in her head, and Yang had done her best to help with that. But even now, hours later, Ruby was still a _mess_ , despite her act, and that in itself was a worry.

Ruby was backsliding into old and toxic habits. There was no doubt in Yang's mind--they both absolutely needed to have a good, honest talk about what had happened.

 _And why,_ Yang added, her mouth twisting unhappily. 

She heaved a sigh, lacing her fingers behind her head, flashing a smile each time Ruby looked back at her and trying to quell the cold worry worming up in her stomach. The sooner they got beyond the fence, the sooner she'd feel comfortable having the heart to heart they so desperately needed. 

It was another few minutes of walking before the abandoned district began to open up, the rubble and half-demolished buildings slowly giving way to the narrow stretch of barren land surrounding Mantle's borders. While Yang had seen the thing on the bus ride into the city, the fence sure was... _something else_ to see in person. 

"At long last, the Mantle fence. Is it everything you ever dreamed, Ruby?" Yang asked Ruby in a low voice, for all that the wind practically stole her words from her lips, the tell-tale speckle of rain freezing on her cheeks.

Ruby didn't answer, her expression thoughtful as she slowed, studying the fence with the sort of attention she only ever gave weapons and Grimm. Well, Yang supposed, the fence was a _little_ related to both of those things. Shrugging, she stuffed her hands in her jacket pockets, happy enough to wait for her sister to gather her thoughts. 

In the meantime? Yang was pretty sure the Mantle fence was as close to the saying "a dog's breakfast" as it was possible to get--without shorting out, exploding or otherwise setting the whole damn city on fire, of course. 

It was layers deep of electrified, barbed wire, the lot of it snarled and rusted, a jagged jungle of metal so dense in places Yang could scarcely see light on the other side. The whole thing looked like total recipe for contracting a dozen infections or Grimm-borne diseases with a single scratch. 

_Terrible weather, asshole liaisons and hunter-hunting Grimm. Mantle really knows how to woo a girl,_ Yang thought with a sigh, crossing her arms against her chest. 

The rest of the perimeter wasn't exactly an improvement on the fence, either. The barren, rocky ground was packed with broken debris from the condemned district, too strategically placed for it to have fallen in battle, and here and there, Yang could spot trenches dug out behind them. 

From what Yang could see, there were perhaps a dozen hunters on duty for this section of the fence--a sniper that had set up shop atop the nearest watchtower, a group of hunters playing cards in what looked like the scrubbed-out remains of an old Atlesian transport. A few hunters were trading turns in patching up one another's injuries, wolfing down rations and aura supplements as though their lives depended on it, and then there was the poor idiot fudging a Dust concoction horribly and sending up a cloud of fire the size of a nevermore into the air. 

As she and Ruby slowly drew closer, Yang tracked the direction of Ruby's gaze along the fence. The border itself could have stretched on forever, until the fence and the makeshift watchtowers constructed along its length blurred and seemed to combine, no matter how hard Yang squinted. 

"I'm pretty sure this is the _ugliest_ mishmash of defence grids I've ever laid eyes on," Yang said finally, hefting her pack over her shoulder to redistribute the weight a little more evenly, and tugging on Ruby's hood to get her attention when she failed to respond. "Even counting Vacuo's."

Ruby looked back over her shoulder, slowing to a stop as they drew near to the closest of the trenches. 

"Weiss--" Ruby hesitated tellingly for a moment, her silver eyes darkening before she forced a smile. "Weiss says that Mantle usually comes up pretty short on funds. So they've made the best with what they have. Even if it's... not... so good."

The flat, dispirited way Ruby trailed off didn't escape Yang's notice, nor the way she'd turned her attention back to the frankenstein monstrosity of a fence before them. 

Yang sighed, tucking a stray lock of unruly gold hair back behind her ear. "I'm pretty sure this level of ugly requires actual _effort_ , but sure. The lien problem makes sense." 

"Weiss would know a lot more." Ruby didn't look at Yang, her eyes still on the fence, the line of her lips pressed tight. "She'd... explain it better than I ever could."

Refusing to allow Ruby to wallow, Yang made a show of squinting at the offending fence. 

"Honestly, I'm enjoying the thought of this whole mess--" Yang gestured to it with a grand sweep, "--just being Vanta's _aesthetic_ too much. I mean, why let the facts get in the way of an awesome theory?" 

Ruby laughed, but it held a touch of weariness that made Yang frown. 

She really, _really_ hoped Blake was having a bit of luck getting Weiss to see reason. Otherwise, Yang was going to have her crack at it--and she had more than a few choice words for Weiss about the stunt she'd thought it was acceptable to pull. 

But, she'd cross that bridge if or when she got to it. Instead, she flashed a smile in Ruby's direction, earning a small one in return as she tried to think of a slightly _less_ awkward topic to steer the conversation toward. 

"Hey, so, how do you think we--"

Yang cut off as she felt her scroll buzz, and she drew it from her jacket pocket, her brow creasing as she saw the message alert pop up on her screen. 

_Think of the devil, wow._ Blake had decided to check in at long last, and as seemed almost traditional, her timing couldn't have been worse.

Ruby looked away, her feeble smile vanishing. Yang's heart twisted, a hot ache in her chest. There was nothing about this whole situation Yang hated more than seeing all the evidence of her sister backsliding, no matter her efforts. 

Sighing, Yang opened her scroll, the content of Blake's message flashing up on the screen. 

_Found Weiss at Lawson's warehouse. In a bad way though. Schnee family poison, as expected._

_Figures,_ Yang thought with a scowl. Now, more than ever, she wished she'd pushed harder to confront Weiss last night, wished she hadn't backed down. She wished they'd gotten everything out in the air _then_ , even risking Weiss' anger, instead of agreeing to allow things to fester as they had. 

Yang was worried about Weiss and the whole messed up situation with her family, disownment or not. Each time Weiss got involved with any of them, Winter included, she came back dug even deeper into her head, and it took ages before she'd so much as laugh at one of Yang's awful puns, let alone make one of her own! 

But right now, Yang was even more worried about what Weiss' unspoken problems were doing to _Ruby._ She cast her sister a fleeting look, who was very intently studying the Mantle fence--not that Yang was fooled for an instant. 

The set of Ruby's shoulders was rigid, her arms crossed, and if Yang had been able to see her knuckles beneath her gloves, she was sure they'd be white. 

_I'm heading to the fence with Ruby to blow off a little steam,_ Yang tapped out, looking back down to her scroll and biting the inside of her cheek, torn. _You totally sure you're gonna be okay with her?_

A few moments passed without answer, and Yang wondered if Blake was simply going to leave her hanging. Finally, Blake's response vibrated in her hand. 

_I'll be just fine._ There was a pause, and then Blake sent a follow up. _Take care of Ruby. She needs you._

Yang nodded to herself, sending through a meaningless string of emojis sure to make Blake roll her eyes and laugh, before sliding her scroll back into her pocket. Exhaling, she looked back to Ruby, who was still examining the nearest watchtower as though it were the most interesting thing in the world. 

"Blake found our missing ice queen, for the record," Yang told her, crossing her arms against her chest. 

Ruby's reaction was both immediate and fierce. She looked over her shoulder with razor-sharp clarity, her worry bleeding from her in waves as though someone had flipped a switch. She seemed equal parts red-hot ferociousness and cold dread, half a heartbeat from pulling out her scythe and tearing off to god only knew where, and Yang wondered if Ruby dared breathe. 

Yang offered Ruby a careful shrug. "She seems to be in good health--if in cranky spirits."

With an abruptness that seemed gut-wrenching, that awful intensity fled Ruby's shoulders and face, the fierce protectiveness in her expression snuffing out. Yang had wondered if Ruby would be relieved to hear Weiss was fine, and sure, there was a bit of that in her expression. 

But more than anything else, Yang was struck by the flicker of hurt in Ruby's silver eyes, pain in the reactionary clench of her jaw--and anger, sharp and hot. Those embers were buried almost immediately as Ruby forced a smile, turning away from Yang, the wind picking up and sending her cloak whipping back from her shoulders. 

"That's... that's good," Ruby managed. Her tone practically dripped false cheer. 

Alarmed at the way her sister had reverted so strongly to burying her feelings, as though she herself didn't matter, as though this sort of behaviour from Weiss was somehow to be _expected_ and not completely out of line--Yang reached out, catching Ruby's shoulder with a hand and trying to meet her gaze. 

"Yang, don't--" Ruby's smile faded into something even more lopsided and strained as she struggled with herself. After a few moments, it failed entirely, and she cast a stubborn stare toward the ground. "It's fine."

"Ruby, hey, don't give me that." Yang hesitated. It was hard not to feel a blistering surge of her own anger toward Weiss for being such an unrepentant _ass._ She swallowed it with an effort, because that was so _not_ constructive when she was trying to get Ruby to open up. "It's okay to be a little pissed off, you know--"

Ruby pulled away from Yang's grasp, her expression one of unhappiness as she looked down to the hand she'd injured, flexing the fingers with a wince. For a long moment, she seemed lost in thought, considering the fitted leather.

When she spoke, however, there was no vague cheer to her voice--just a barely-concealed edge. "Is she really okay, or is it just another thing people don't want to talk to me about?"

Yang blinked at the bitterness in her sister's tone, before frowning. "Ruby, I'm on your side. Remember?" 

Ruby made a sound in her throat, halfway between a sigh and a groan, the forced tilt of her smile a sickly thing. "You're right. I'm being a jerk, aren't I?" 

"No. No, that's not _it,_ Rubes, and you know it." Yang exhaled, casting her sister a smile she hoped was a little infectious. This was not the place for them to yell themselves hoarse over everything, from Weiss to the price of elemental ammunition, no matter how tempting it was to just take her sister and _shake her_. 

God, what would Blake do? She always seemed to know what to say to defuse a situation... 

"C'mon. Let's get out there. I want to spend a few hours smashing Grimm skulls together with my sister."

At the reminder of why they'd made the trip, Ruby's answering smile became more genuine, and she huffed a weak laugh. "You always know how to cheer me up, Yang."

"You bet I do." Yang gestured to the fence itself again with a lazy wave. "So, how do you reckon we get through?"

Ruby hummed beneath her breath, thoughtful as she scanned the barren perimeter again, before she looked back to Yang with a shrug. "I mean, it's a big fence, but somehow I don't think that jumping is quite the right... protocol. Looks like there's a checkpoint a bit further along the fence--we can probably bluff our way through if we have to."

"Bluffing?" Yang asked, tilting her head, her smile teasing. The wind picked up around them again, icy and biting and just short of howling. "You mean we _can't_ just drop Vanta's name and do what we like? Well, that just blows. Just like this wind, eh? Eh?"

Ruby rolled her eyes, her expression unamused as she tucked a stubborn strand of windblown hair back behind her ear. "Very funny, Yang. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Way to bruise my ego." Yang's smile widened, and she reached across, tugging Ruby's hood back over her head and dragging her knuckles across the top of Ruby's skull. "I'll leave it in your capable hands then, oh leader mine. Show me how it's done."

Ruby snorted beneath her breath, pinning Yang with a disgusted scowl as she pushed her hood back and tried to fix her mussed up hair. That--that was a much more Ruby reaction, and Yang couldn't help but smile as she trailed along after the brilliant red whip of her sister's cloak. 

The nearest checkpoint was set into the base of a crumbling old watchtower that looked more like it had been wholesale looted from the condemned district. As they drew close, Yang caught a glint from a sniper scope at the very top of the tower, the entire structure seeming to sway dangerously in the wind. 

Shivering, Yang tugged her own hood up over her head, adjusting her aviators as they drew near. 

A team of bored looking hunters were assembled at the base of the watchtower, and to Yang's untrained eye, the "checkpoint" wasn't much more than a gap in the layers of electrified netting. Sure, it was barred with half a dozen gates instead, but... 

Ruby hesitated only a moment before looking to the nearest huntress, the obvious leader of the team--a woman a few years older than Yang, a gunblade propped against one shoulder. 

The woman cast a doubtful eye up and down Ruby as they approached. 

"Next rotation isn't for another two hours," she told them in a chilled tone, before Ruby could so much as say a word. She clicked her tongue, as though irritated with their very presence. 

Despite how very Weiss-like the scorn was, Ruby seemed to take it in her stride, shaking her head as if the woman had _everything_ wrong. 

"We're not here for that. My sister and I have a contract for an advanced cull of the boarbatusk herds in the forest." Ruby stopped before the woman, and her voice was quiet and steady as she added, "We'd like to get through."

If Yang hadn't known Ruby had been pulling the details right out of thin air, _she'd_ have believed her sister, too. 

The woman's eyes narrowed a fraction, and she lifted her chin, suspicious no matter how cool Ruby was playing it. "Haven't heard anything about an authorised kill squad this afternoon." 

"Not our problem your scrolls are dodgy," Yang shot back, but before she could get away with mouthing off any further, Ruby cast her a flat look over her shoulder. 

All part of the game, of course. Yang sighed, lacing her fingers behind her head to show she'd behave--and maybe just a little to show off her guns. And by guns, she didn't _only_ mean Ember Celica. She flashed Ruby an obedient smile. 

Satisfied, Ruby looked back to the huntress in charge, smiling with a sort of scatterbrained charm as she began to fumble for her scroll. "Oh! If it's a problem, I'd be happy to show you the contract details--" 

"Come off it, Farr," another huntsman toward the back drawled, just as a tic started up in the woman's eyebrow. Yang eyed him from behind her aviators--a big guy, practically a mountain all on his own. He heaved a sigh. "They already know about the herds, so are we really gonna twist their arms over _leaving_ the city to clean up a bit?" 

The woman--Farr or something--made an annoyed sound beneath her breath, but the huntsman's words seemed to dispel a lot of the tension in her shoulders. 

"Fine," Farr said, relenting as she looked back to Ruby, her blue eyes sharp. "Just keep your keycards close so you can get back--"

"Oh, _darn_ ," Yang broke in, casting an apologetic look to Ruby and rubbing the back of her neck in totally confected shame. "Sorry, Rubes. I left the card back at home. I can go back and get it, but I'll be like an hour or so."

For her part, Ruby was giving her a disapproving look that was so authentic she _had_ to have lifted it right from Weiss, and Yang was struggling not to burst into laughter. 

The huntsman toward the back groaned loudly. _"Farr!"_

"Albion." Farr closed her eyes, taking a long, deep breath, before she reached into her pocket and tossed Ruby a battered looking keycard. "Take this spare. Just don't forget yours next time."

"Thanks." Ruby beamed at Farr with the most heartbreaking smile _ever_ , and in all honestly, Yang would have paid good money to see that thing turned on Weiss instead. She was pretty sure it would short-circuit poor Weiss' brain. Ignoring Yang's muffled laughter, Ruby extended her hand to the woman, adding, "We really appreciate it." 

Farr hesitated, studying Ruby's face for a long moment before slowly accepting it. "Have... we met? Western Dead Zone, Crisis?"

Ruby's shoulders went rigid, her smile becoming just a fraction forced--and fortunately imperceptible to any but Yang. 

"Oh, no." Ruby withdrew her hand a little too quickly, rubbing the back of her neck as she gave a strained laugh. "Yang and I were helping hold the line in Vacuo."

It was a lie the size of the moon itself, and from Farr's answering frown, she knew it, too. Alarm bells going off in Yang's head, she cuffed Ruby on the shoulder, swooping in to save her sister from digging an even deeper hole with a practiced ease that in hindsight was actually kind of worrying. 

"She's just got one of those faces that are _super_ common," Yang told the woman, and she cracked a wide smile. Taking one for the team with a frankly heroic aplomb, she winked at Farr. "Unlike you, of course. I'd never forget a face as pretty as yours."

It was corny as all get-out, but it did the trick. Farr rolled her eyes with a disgusted snort, and without a further remark, she stood aside to allow Ruby and Yang to pass through the checkpoint. 

As Ruby swiped the keycard on the rusting security panel, Yang cast her sister a quiet, worried look. That was not the first time she'd needed to cover for Ruby like that over the past year, and that...

 _Just another thing to add to the pile of heart-to-heart topics we've gotta cover._

Ruby breathed a sigh of relief the moment they made it through the layers of snarled fencing and into the narrow, rocky stretch of land between Mantle's border and the nearest alpine forest. The tightness to her jaw eased, the stiffness to her shoulders relaxed. 

"Ruby. You know you can't keep running away from what happened, right?" Yang ventured, pitching her voice to carry in spite of the way the wind threatened to steal her every word away. She looked her sister up and down, falling into step just a pace behind her as they continued to walk. "It's been over a year."

Ruby didn't look back at Yang, reaching to the straps at the small of her back drawing Crescent Rose, the forest looming dark and dreary just ahead. 

"It's nice to be out of the city again," Ruby told Yang, instead of answering her question. She exhaled as they passed between the first of the massive pine trees, almost a laugh if Yang hadn't known better. "Feels like I can't think in there, sometimes. Like everything is pressing down on my brain."

Yang didn't trust herself to reply, to interrupt whatever train of thought was running through Ruby's head. She trailed after her sister, her footfalls muffled in the layer of brown pine needles lying thick over the muddy ground. 

Finally, Ruby sighed, her silver eyes bleak in the shadows of the forest as she looked back over her shoulder at Yang. "I don't know. I don't really want people to... Every time I think about how it all ended, and what I did, all I want to _do_ is run. Run and never stop, until I'm so tired none of these problems in my head stick, because I'm finally too exhausted to think. I don't know how to stop feeling that way sometimes."

Yang frowned at the hesitance in Ruby's voice, and she reached forward, tugging at Ruby's hood to get her to slow. She circled in front of her sister.

"Ruby, I'm not saying it's time to stop hurting, or that you just have to suddenly be okay. I'm actually saying the exact opposite." Yang twisted, ducking lower to try to catch Ruby's fleeting gaze without a whole lot of success. "You _don't_ need to pretend that you're fine. Not for me, not for Blake, and not for Weiss."

Ruby's expression was pained, and Yang instinctively knew she was about to shut down the heart to heart. _Damnit, Ruby._

"Yang--"

"For the past year, you've been either running or pretending that everything is fine, which is _even more_ running!" Yang hated cutting Ruby off at the pass like that, but if there was anything Yang knew, it was how stubborn her sister was about all the worst things. 

Not that Yang herself was a whole lot better--but today was not about her. 

Steeling herself, she continued. "I figured, maybe you needed the space to figure yourself out. Maybe the day to day grind of the hunt was the best thing for you. God knows I needed that kind of boring stability when I lost my arm." She looked down to her yellow and black prosthetic almost compulsively. She moved her fingers in the dreary forest light, reflexive and restless, before she looked back to Ruby. "I don't really know if that's true now--that it's good for you, I mean. Not after yesterday. Not after this morning."

"Yang, I promise. I'm okay." Ruby's eyebrows drew together, earnest and heartbreaking and always looking after everyone else. 

That was the whole damn problem. 

"But you can't make that promise, so don't," Yang told her, gentle, for all she wanted to shake some sense into Ruby. She snorted beneath her breath, wrapping her arm about her sister's shoulders. "Same as I didn't, when I finally caught up with you and Jaune and the rest in Mistral after Beacon's fall." 

Ruby cast Yang a worried look, nudging her in the side with an elbow. "I never blamed you for that."

"I know. But that also doesn't mean I can't be concerned, or that what you're doing to yourself right now _isn't_ making things worse in here." Yang reached out, tapping the side of Ruby's head with her prosthetic hand. When Ruby opened her mouth to retort, she shook her head. "Hey. Let me talk, okay? I don't wanna hear a word until I'm done."

Ruby closed her mouth, shooting Yang an unhappy look as she crossed her arms. It was a start, Yang supposed. 

"When you agreed to this contract, I guess I thought it was a sign you were ready to turn the corner, that you were okay with coming back. Even just a little! It's progress, right? And that's _important._ " Yang nodded to herself, smiling, because hell, she'd been so proud when Ruby had shaken her awake to see Blake's message. Sleepy and absolutely ready to smother Ruby with a pillow, but totally proud. 

Her smile faded as she continued, far too aware of the sudden stiffness in Ruby' shoulders, the lingering dark circles beneath her eyes. "But then there was yesterday, then this morning, and just now, right there with those hunters. That's not healthy, Ruby. That's not just running--that's refusing to let yourself heal."

Ruby disentangled herself from Yang's arm, taking two slow steps forward, her boots heavy in the mud.

"'You saved the world, Ruby'. 'You're a hero'. That's what they all said back then, and that's what they'd say now." When Ruby turned to face Yang, her mouth was flat, her silver eyes anguished. "Yang, I don't _feel_ like a hero."

"Then what do you feel like?"

"I can't even tell." Ruby huffed a weak, humourless laugh, looking down to Crescent Rose, still clenched in her hands. "I knew Salem had to die, Yang, and we've been through that bit a thousand times. It was her or everything else. Her, or the people I loved. I know I'd pick the same every time."

"But...?" Yang pressed, and no matter how many times they'd been through it, this was better than Ruby stewing on it in her head. 

"But that doesn't change the fact that I killed her." There was an edge to Ruby's voice this time, though, something strained and desperate. "Doesn't change the fact that a lot of people died for that chance."

Yang knew exactly where this was going. "Ruby, you're not a bad person for defending yourself. Or us."

"In my dreams, I'm not sure I can tell the difference between her and me. That's the part that scares me the most." Ruby's gaze cut across to Yang's then, fierce and hurting. "Back then, I _lost it,_ Yang. She was going to kill all of you and then something bad snapped inside my head--"

Yang said nothing as Ruby cut off, listening to the sound of the wind through the trees. She remembered. She'd been there, during those final moments of the fight against Salem, even if her memories were hazy and fleeting--the warped dimension, the rules of the universe reduced to a witch's whim as they'd battled. She remembered Blake and Weiss falling. She remembered it being down to her and Ruby alone, back to back as the darkness swirled and the end of the world drew near. 

She remembered Crescent Rose's sword morph and silver fire, and then... The only thing Yang remembered after that--clear as day--was thinking that berserker Xiao Long blood ran just as strongly through Ruby as it did herself.

Ruby drew a ragged breath, then, drawing Yang back to the present. 

"Then there was blood and ichor dripping down my sword and on my skin and I--" Ruby silenced herself, hesitating on the brink, before she wet her lips, looking away from Yang. "She was dead, and I was alive. It sounds so simple, but it _isn't._ "

"It hardly ever is," Yang said, her voice gentle. "And you don't need to pretend that it isn't complicated, or that you don't have wants and needs. You don't need to pretend that you're magically okay after what happened."

Ruby looked away from Yang, pressing her lips together. "I'll be fine, Yang."

"Last night begs to differ." Yang reached out for Ruby then, letting her flesh and blood fingers close about Ruby's shoulder. There was just so much about _everything_ she wanted to say, but god, it was a hell of a task. Where could she even begin? She drew a breath, bracing herself. "I know you're also really upset about Weiss but--"

"I'm not upset about her." Ruby twitched away from Yang, a muted flicker of anger and hurt crossing her expression before she turned away, her arms crossed. 

_Oh, come on Ruby._ Aloud, Yang asked, "That a fact?"

Ruby didn't look at her, her jaw growing tighter, and for a long moment, Yang wondered if her sister was gearing up to get mad. It'd be a nice change from the painful quietness, that was for sure. 

Finally, Ruby exhaled, cocking her head as she listened carefully to something in the distance. Her voice was soft as she asked, "You hear that?"

Yang paused, frowning as she listened beyond the whistle of the wind through the trees. The stamp of hoofed feet, the squeals and snorts growing closer by the second--her expression cleared, and she looked back to Ruby. 

"Boarbatusks," she said, shifting her shoulders to resettle her pack against the small of her back. "A lot of them, and on the move."

Ruby nodded, and with a flick, she unfurled her scythe to its full length. Her expression was one of relief as she replied, "Right. So we can talk later."

"How convenient for you," Yang said, just a tiny bite of frustration in her voice as she drew level with Ruby. 

"Later, Yang." Ruby's silver gaze was stubborn, and unless Yang wanted to have a full-on yelling match, right there and then, there would be no shifting her sister on the topic. "I think a bit of Grimm-hunting is just what the doctor ordered."

Yang grunted beneath her breath. "I'll hold you to that."

Ruby sighed. "You always do."

###

Goliaths, Yang decided, were _really_ more trouble than they were worth. After they'd made short work of the herd of boarbatusks, Ruby had spotted goliath tracks, and then...

Yang bit back a growl, regretting her ongoing inability to say "no" to Ruby as she skidded low, her combat boots slipping in the churned up mud, a whole damn pine tree--ripped straight from the ground, roots and all--passing through the space her head had been just a heartbeat earlier. 

The goliath trumpeted, the ground itself trembling from the force of it, and more annoyed than anything else, Yang could have sworn she felt her ears pop. Before the goliath could follow up the first tree with one of its buddies, Ruby's sniper cracked from somewhere amidst all the dark pine brush, distracting it, drawing it away from Yang's position. 

"More beowolves on the way!" Ruby called out, and Yang caught a flash of red as she darted from tree to tree, staying just ahead of the goliath's rampage. 

"Leave it to me!" Yang shouted back, scrambling to her feet with a recoil burst from Ember Celica. With another blast, she propelled herself in a break-neck lunge for the nearest beowolf, the beast emerging from the shadows at the clearing's edge. 

The beowolf's red-streaked skull shattered beneath her gauntlet's next blast, showering the tree trunk beyond it with oily blood and broken bone, buckshot peppering the bark. She didn't hesitate to admire her handiwork, her blood pounding in her ears and her aura crackling as she pivoted, sidestepping the next beowolf's haymaker lunge, razor claws the size of her forearm practically keening as they caught only air. 

Refusing to give ground, Yang darted in as the Grimm overextended, sending her metal elbow hard into the beowolf's ribs, targeting that killer concentration of nerve endings Professor Port had always waxed lyrical about in beowolves big and small. The Grimm snarled as Yang felt its ribs crack beneath the blow, and before those frothing jaws could snap down around the back of her neck, she threw her other fist up in a sharp uppercut that _removed_ the problem at its source. 

"Still got it!" Yang announced to Ruby, panting, rolling her shoulders with a savage grin as she dodged another beowolf's snapping jaws, propelling herself over the beast's back to bring both of her fists hammering down on its unarmoured spine. 

Ruby's sniper rang out as Yang's ears were filled again with the sound of shattering wood, and she turned, backfisting the next beowolf in the face as it tried to strike from her blindspot. She could hear more beowolves snarling beyond the clearing's edge, red eyes looming in the dark and dreary forest, but her attention was on the goliath again.

A tornado of red petals tore from the dark forest as the goliath smashed another set of trees to splinters, Crescent Rose snapping out to score along the Grimm's armoured flank as Ruby moved to create distance once again. Caught in its charge, the goliath slammed into the forest, and Yang could hear the sound of wood snapping and tree trunks ripping, birds taking flight into the patchy sky. 

Yang read the look in her sister's eyes immediately, and she vaulted the nearest jagged boulder set into the centre of the clearing. Panting, she pressed her back against the lichen-covered rock, sending out a concentrated fire missile from each of Ember Celica's gauntlets to cover Ruby's retreat. 

Ruby's boots slid as she joined Yang, the combination of her semblance-touched momentum and the mud causing her to overshoot. She recovered almost seamlessly, Crescent Rose's wicked blade flashing out and digging deep into the ground, Ruby using the last of her momentum to make a dangerous 180 degree bank. 

Yang watched Ruby lined up the scope of her sniper, a trio of shots preceding a trio of beowolves very suddenly missing vital bits of their skulls. 

Ruby was laughing, completely relaxed as she lost herself in the fury of the fight, and Yang couldn't help but share a feral grin with her. 

"Would all these little guys let up already?" Yang demanded, sending out another duo of missiles to mess with the beowolves, breathless as she ducked back behind the boulder as the resulting explosion detonated on impact. Mud and scorched wood showered down around them, and Yang looked back to Ruby, her grin growing wider. "What can I say, I really want to address the elephant in the room!"

Ruby's gaze cut across to her, and another three shots rang out as she groaned, " _Yang!_ "

"What? Have I already made that joke?" Yang reloaded Ember Celica with a practiced twist, because damn it, she could feel the ground trembling again. The goliath would be back within the next few seconds--once baited, those jerks never were ones to let up. Seizing her chance, she winked at her sister. "Didn't realise you had a pachyderm's memory."

Ruby growled at her, her tone completely exasperated as she shot back, "Why are you _always_ like this?" 

Yang laughed, the warmth in the pit of her stomach suffusing her--no matter how freezing her fingers were, or how much icy mud she was covered in. 

"My pile of puns is mammoth, Ruby. Get with the program!" 

Pretending to scowl, Ruby whirled Crescent Rose's haft back onto her shoulders, mud and oily blood flicking off the blade to splatter against another boulder. 

"I _know_ , I spent like a year with wall to wall puns--incoming!"

Right on cue, the goliath smashed through the nearest trees, splintering the massive trunks with an ear-ripping _crack._ An unstoppable force, its momentum didn't falter, its armoured skull lowering as it charged the boulders Yang and Ruby had taken cover behind. Yang's gaze flickered to where Ruby had thrown up a hand, her grin becoming savage as she waited on the cue to move. 

As the boulders shattered beneath the goliath's charge, Ruby gave the signal, broken rock sparking off their auras as they split up to divide the goliath's attention. Yang repelled herself off the nearest tree with a burst of aura and a shot from Ember Celica, using the momentum to send herself spinning into a duo of beowolves creeping out from the shadows. 

"Hey, Ruby!" she called out, disabling the first with a shotgun-uppercut before sweeping the second from its feet with a follow-up kick. She looked back to where Ruby was leading the goliath on another merry chase about the clearing, and she couldn't help but laugh. She hadn't been kidding around about wanting her shot at the goliath, though. "How much lien do you wanna bet that I can take this jerk out with one punch?"

She caught Ruby's scoff over the thunder of the goliath's feet, a red whirlwind seemingly everywhere at once. 

"I'd rather bet on how badly you're gonna break your wrist trying!" Ruby called back, reversing a break-neck corkscrew strike to send her war-scythe lancing for the goliath's eyes. The blade skittered off the armour plating, useless, but before those sharpened tusks could gore open her stomach, she whirled away in a backflip. 

Yang sent another duo of missiles to cover Ruby's retreat from those trampling, huge feet, retorting with a laugh, "Are you saying One Punch Yang isn't a thing? Because you and I know it totally is!"

Ruby growled as she was showered in muddy, smoking debris, Crescent Rose switching to sniper mode as she took aim at the goliath's eye again. "As cool and awesome as you are, that's a _goliath,_ Yang!"

"Funny, I thought it was just a _really big_ ursa." Yang rolled her shoulder, flexing her prosthetic fingers with restless energy. "So! Fifty lien says yes?" 

Ruby groaned, slashing for the tendons in the back of the goliath's knees as she streaked forward. "Fifty says no, and another ten I'll need to save your butt _yet again_."

Oh, it was _on._ "I'm not going to have my baby sister doubting my mad skills like some sort of hyper-rational _Belladonna._ Prepare to eat your words!" 

Yang loved Blake more than she could really say, but that didn't mean her girlfriend wasn't _entirely_ too reasonable in her expectations. Sometimes, it didn't hurt to live dangerously! And sometimes, it was just fun to try the craziest thing possible.

As Ruby continued to run interference with the goliath, Yang cast a critical eye over the goliath's anatomy. She'd never exactly had the misfortune of stumbling across one in the wild, and they'd only ever covered goliaths in a really vague way before Beacon's fall. 

This thing was some sort of wool-covered variant on the Vacuoan and Vale varieties of goliath, the black fur growing long between the massive plates of armour all along its face, trunk and spine. The segments covered most of the obvious critical points Yang could have guessed at. But--her gaze sharpened as she watched Ruby streak into the air, the goliath's head tipping back as its trunk whipped out to try to snatch her from her jump. 

There was one that looked like fair game--and it was a good one, too. 

Yang flexed her fingers of her metal arm, setting Ember Celica's gauntlet to its alternate mode with a twist, linking the gauntlet with the aura-sensitive circuitry running down the length of her prosthetic. It was a little special something Ruby had helped her put together, after they'd figured out exactly how Yang's aura interacted with the prosthetic to make it move. 

_High risk, high reward._

Yang set her stance, exhaling long and low, reaching for the scorching embers of her aura in her chest, channeling it down the length of her metal arm and through the aura-sensitive circuits, the gears of Ember Celica lighting up with yellow fire as she finally inhaled. 

She looked up, baring her teeth in a feral grin. 

"Ruby! Go high!"

Ruby didn't need to be told twice, arcing skyward in a whirl of rose petals, Crescent Rose's curved blade flashing in the weak sunlight. The goliath's trunk rose with her again, those red eyes tracking the most visible threat--and ignoring Yang. 

_That's your last mistake, buddy._

Yang streaked across the clearing, Ember Celica's gauntlet trailing fire in her wake, a damn meteor ready to hit, and she lunged. 

The force of her strike breached the black hide of the Grimm's soft throat, Ember Celica's massive, aura-enhanced blast reducing its spine to splinters with a deafening _bang_ that sent Yang's ears ringing. Satisfied, Yang yanked her arm back from the goliath's throat with a grunt, darting away as the Grimm began to topple. 

The goliath crashed to the ground, twitching, before it finally lay still. 

Yang looking down at her leather sleeve and Ember Celica then, making a face as she caught sight of the dark blood--and god only _knew_ what else--still caught to her gauntlet and jacket sleeve. Disgusted, she flicked her hand, trying to dislodge some of the muck. 

Eventually giving it up for a lost cause, Yang unlinked Ember Celica from her prosthetic, her smile one of smug satisfaction as she said, "One punch, one kill." 

"Surprised you aren't _trumpeting_ your victory."

Yang craned her head back, catching sight of where Ruby had landed in one of the massive alpine evergreens. Crescent Rose's blade had been dug deep into the tree's trunk, and she was crouched on its haft, her silver eyes merry as she looked down on Yang. 

Yang exhaled, feeling her own smile soften despite the way her ears were still ringing a little from the blast. 

"C'mon, you know the rules!" she called out, jerking her thumb back to where the goliath still lay. A Grimm that big wouldn't begin to fade for a few more seconds, but there was no sense in wasting time! "Big game hunting calls for big smiles!"

Ruby rolled her eyes, grumbling beneath her breath as she swung herself and her scythe down from the tree, but Yang wasn't fooled--and she still caught that tiny smile on Ruby's lips. Delighted, Yang dragged Ruby in the moment she got close, slinging her arm about Ruby's shoulders as she held up her scroll, snapping a picture of the two of them in front of the goliath, just as the body began to dissolve in dark smoke. 

As Ruby ducked away to examine the goliath's body closer before it was gone entirely, Yang checked the selfie. It was a tradition she'd made over the past year--a post-hunt selfie, whenever they could, because while the bad could suck when you were in the middle of Grimm-infested swampland, that didn't make the good moments any less great. 

Ruby was smiling brightly in the photo, exhausted and triumphant from the hunt, and in the background, Yang could hear her talking a mile a minute about the fight in exhaustive, effusive detail. 

_This one's a keeper,_ Yang decided with a pleased smile, slipping her scroll back into her pocket.

###

It was a good few hours into their hunting trip when Yang called for a timeout, flopping with a satisfied sigh onto the edge of an empty, cracked fountain, casting an eye over the courtyard of the abandoned fortress they'd stumbled across. The ancient structure, it seemed, had fallen to the Grimm some hundred years gone, and instead, the stone was slowly being reclaimed by nature.

It was a pretty familiar story--the forests around Vale were packed with the same kind of old ruins, outposts and ghost towns, all of them just as empty and dead. 

And just as brimming with Grimm. 

They'd spent the better part of two hours clearing out the pack of beowolves living in the ruins, just for the hell of it, but now? Yang was _beat._ As Ruby cast a curious eye over the crumbling ruins around them, her expression one of wonder and Crescent Rose propped up on her shoulder, Yang set her pack between her knees, fishing around for the supplies she'd thought to pack earlier that morning. 

Grabbing a few protein bars and a canteen from its depths, Yang tossed them across to Ruby without a word, her sister catching each of them from the air without even sparing her a look. Yang fished her own out from her pack, unscrewing the canteen lid and taking a long, grateful swing. 

Pushing up her aviators to the top of her head, Yang watched Ruby peel open the foil on one of the protein bars, her nose wrinkling as she realised how squashed it had gotten in Yang's bag. 

Unfazed by the structural integrity of her food and more than willing to make a point about it, Yang unwrapped her own bar and took a bite, saying around it, "Gotta say, Mantle has some big Grimm. The legends are true this time."

Ruby glanced at her, already halfway through her protein bar. She swallowed the chunk in mouth without so much as bothering to chew, washing it down with a wince as she replied, "Those beowolves were just a few boney-bits away from being full-on alphas." 

Yang snorted, gesturing in Ruby's direction with her canteen. "'Boney bits'?"

Ruby rolled her eyes, taking another bite from her protein bar as she shot back, "Well, what would _you_ call them?"

"I don't know! Armour plates?" Yang shrugged, and it was entirely too hard not to dissolve into immature laughter at the betrayed look Ruby was giving her. "Look, I'm just saying that you can totally do better than 'boney bits'."

Ruby muttered beneath her breath rebelliously, a half-assed and exaggerated mockery of Yang's own tone.

"What was that, Ruby?" Yang cupped her ear with her hand, pretending to lean closer to where Ruby lingered at the edge of the fortress' small inner courtyard. "You need to speak up if you're gonna backsass me. Sorry, I don't make the rules."

Ruby scowled at her, finally retracting her scythe back down to its smallest form and sliding it back into the harness at the small of her back. "I _said_ , Blake wouldn't be making fun of my vocabulary like a big jerk, and I wish she was the one hunting Grimm with me."

"Okay, first of all, next time you poke fun of me for making up words, I'm bringing this moment up." Yang took a long breath, and god she wished this was easier. Her amusement fading as she fixed Ruby with a level, serious stare, she continued, "Second of all, if you wish anyone was here instead of me, it would be Weiss and we both know it."

Ruby froze, her shoulders going rigid once more, the pleasant mood she'd been in abruptly souring. Even from here, Yang caught the flash of hurt and anger in her expression, despite how quickly her sister mastered both. 

"So, we're just going to add Weiss to the list of topics you're gonna avoid for the rest of forever? Like the Salem thing?" Yang sighed, looking down at the canteen clasped between her hands for a long moment, before looking back to Ruby. "Gotta wonder how she'd feel, being put on the same level as a witch. I know _I'd_ start reconsidering my life and choices." 

Ruby's mouth flattened. "Yang--"

Yang held up a hand, tilting her head to the side as she leaned forward, her forearm braced against her knees. "Just curious. I like to keep myself updated on the long list of things we're not dealing with."

Ruby shot her an unhappy look, turning away from Yang to look over the overgrown ruins around them. 

_Like blood from a stone. Sometimes, Ruby and Weiss really deserve one another._ The thought was unfair and maybe a little petty, but she was out of ideas. All of her attempts over the past few hours had been met with deflections, evasion and false assertions of 'fine'. 

Ruby needed to vent, not strangle her feelings--Yang just had to draw that out of her, painful as it could be. 

"Speaking of Weiss, I wonder how Blake is going with her?" Yang rose to her feet then, her boots crunching through gritty debris and scattered gravel. 

Ruby watched her approach out of the corner of her eye, and there was a low note of warning in her voice as she replied, "I'm trying not to." 

"Maybe you should." Yang stopped just a pace away from where her sister remained rooted to the spot, crossing her arms as she added, "I really hope Blake's figured out a way to stop her from acting like such a monumental ass."

It was both blunt and harsh--deliberately so. Yang felt for Weiss, because whatever she was going through after staying with her mess of a family wasn't going to be pleasant. But this was about getting a rise from Ruby, digging into that buried, toxic anger simmering beneath the flatness and quiet. It was about reminding Ruby that she was just as important. 

_Shaking Ruby is not a solution, and neither is punching Weiss._ Yang just had to do the best she had with the tools that remained to her. 

Just as intended, there was a spark in Ruby's eyes as she looked back over her shoulder to Yang. "That's not being very fair."

"Funny, I'm not trying to be fair." Yang shrugged, her eyebrows drawing together as Ruby looked away. She gestured to Ruby with her metal hand, before letting it fall back to her side. "And you don't think much the same? That she's being a secretive jerk who didn't give a damn about how she was making you feel? What exactly was fair about what she did?" 

"Yang, it's not important." Ruby's voice was steel, and Yang wondered if she even realised her hands had clenched into fists at her side. Ruby took a breath, shallow and short in the quiet ruins. "It's not that bad."

"The hell it _isn't_ , Ruby!" Yang paused, running a frustrated hand through her hair as she tried to find the words to break through to her sister. "Look. Sometimes, people do things that can be seriously hurtful to the ones they love. Doesn't mean they don't care, doesn't mean their situation can't be awful, but that doesn't excuse them from acting like an ass!"

Ruby looked taken aback for a moment by Yang's vehemence, before her brows lowered and she started, "Yang--"

"Ruby, I'm dead serious. It is _okay_ to feel what you feel! And it's okay to be mad at her about this. Don't bottle this up too. First all the stuff with Salem, now everything with Weiss--"

"What exactly do you want me to say?!" Ruby burst out, her voice cracking, reverberating in the silence around them. Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides, the leather of her gloves creaking. "Yang, I _know_ things are super difficult for her and that I don't really _get_ so much of what is going on! And despite all of that, I want to be able to help her, I really, _really_ do--"

Ruby hesitated, her jaw clenching, her silver eyes raw. She was on the precipice, and all it would take would be one push. 

"But?" Yang asked, her words soft as she braced herself. It was all Ruby needed to hear. 

"I was so worried about her, Yang! I kept looking at all those awful crime scene photos and thinking, _what if Weiss is next?_ It kept playing over and over in my head that I'd be too late again, just the way I was with Pyrrha, and it turns out she _was_ ignoring me the _whole time_!

"Do you have any idea how that feels? All these stupid secrets--it's like she doesn't trust me, and it's driving me insane! It's not fair, and yeah, what she did last night _sucked_! I feel like our friendship amounts to nothing, and that's she's doing all of this alone because--"

Ruby cut off, her chest heaving, her teeth clenched as though the words physically hurt to say. She drew a shallow, trembling breath. 

"Yang. I was so worried it did things to my head."

"I know, Ruby." Yang looked at her sister's miserable expression, her own heart twisting in her chest. There was nothing about this whole thing that didn't suck. "So why not tell Weiss that?"

Ruby forced a quiet, weary laugh. "And end up in a shouting match with her? No thanks."

"Ruby, I'm not saying you have to go yell at her, though if that would make you feel better, then I'm not going to argue against it." Yang shook her head, reaching out to clasp Ruby's shoulder with a gentle hand. "But that's what _right now_ is for--so you can get it out of your system, to give you free rein to _feel_ , so you can sit down and talk to her instead of continuing the charade that everything is okay with you."

Ruby batted her hand away with a desperate ferocity, turning away from Yang. "Everything _is_ okay with me! So long as I don't have to--"

Yang crossed her arms again, shrugging, her mouth twisting. "Ruby, just a few hours ago you were frozen in fear at the idea of some random huntress even knowing you spent time on the western continent!" 

Ruby bared her teeth, whirling to pace the courtyard with an energy that had to be semblance-touched. "Because I didn't want her to look at me like--" 

"Like _what?_ " Yang caught Ruby on her way past again, her fingers twisting in the folds of her red hood just to get her to slow down. "Talk to me, Ruby!"

" _Differently!_ And Yang, I couldn't take it if--" Ruby froze, no longer trying to pull away from Yang. Her eyes widened, her anger abruptly snuffing out. She swallowed, unsteady and far too loud. "If..."

"Ruby?" Yang pressed, barely daring to breathe as she gave her sister a gentle tug through the cloak still clenched in her hand. "Hey, you in there?"

"I couldn't bear it if Weiss looked at me like that, too. _Differently._ If she knew how bad it really was." Ruby seemed to cave in on herself, turning away from Yang and choking back something that sounded dangerously like a sob. "I've been doing the exact same thing to her. Haven't I?" 

"You haven't really... talked to her about the past year for you, have you?" Yang asked, realisation dawning. She turned Ruby back toward her with gentle, firm hands. The more she thought about it, the more it started to make sense. "How things haven't exactly been all sunshine and roses. What really happened with Salem while the rest of our team was out cold."

"No." Ruby scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her gloves, inhaling wetly into the leather. "I mean, I keep wanting to but the words just keep choking me and I--" 

_Oh Ruby._ Desperately trying not to find herself crying too, Yang swept Ruby up into a full-bodied hug, clutching her close as she felt her sister tremble. "Just breathe."

"I kept thinking it would just... go away, when the team got back together," Ruby forced out against Yang's shoulder, her fingers twisting in her scarf. She took another breath, more a hiccough than anything else. "That everything would be normal, and so would I."

Yang ran her fingers through Ruby's loose, dark hair. "You know it's not that simple."

"I _hoped._ " Ruby drew back, shaking her head, her expression haunted as she wiped at her cheeks again. "God, I don't even know what Weiss thinks is going on. No wonder she refuses to trust me when I'm about to break at the sight of a bit of black slime." 

Yang felt a spike of alarm--the conversation was rapidly going in a direction that would do far more damage than good. Self-blame was the worst, and she wouldn't stand by and let her sister do that to herself. 

"Ruby. It's going to be okay, I swear--"

"Yang, would you just... give it a rest?!" Ruby broke in, backing away from Yang's hold, and this time, there was genuine anger in her words. 

"Ruby?" Yang ventured, suddenly feeling uncertain of herself. She tried to smile, but it felt as faked as it really was. "Hey, I'm just trying to help."

"That's just _it!_ I'm not some fragile child you all need to protect from the bad stuff! You and Blake and even Weiss, you all keep trying to shield me!" Ruby pressed her hand to the side of her head, clenching her teeth as she looked back to Yang, her silver eyes fierce. "You want me to talk about it? You want me to try to move past it? Then you all need to stop treating me like I'm made of glass, and then maybe I will!" 

Yang froze, watching Ruby run a feverish hand through her hair, feeling like she'd been winded. There... there _was_ a bit of truth to what Ruby was saying. Maybe she had been treating Ruby with kid gloves, backing down when she believed she knew better instead of challenging Ruby. Blake had stopped Ruby from pursuing Weiss, and even though that might have been for the best... 

A pattern was a pattern.

"Even Weiss, huh?" Yang asked slowly, looking Ruby up and down, studying the way she'd set her shoulders, the steel in her tone. 

This was what she'd wanted from Ruby all along, Yang realised. For Ruby to push to assert her will, her needs. Yang was suddenly struck by a growing sense of pride for her sister, dizzying and warm, and in spite of the gravity of their conversation, she felt herself begin to smile. 

"She thinks I don't know that she's holding back, but I do." Ruby's voice was quiet, and in spite of the sudden certainty in her eyes, there was no hiding the raw hurt in her words. "Yang, she and I are meant to be partners, and we can't even talk about what matters."

Yang nodded, taking it in her stride. "So change that. You said it yourself, you're not a child--you're our leader and you've had to do awful things to secure this future for us. So take it into your own hands. Relearn how to talk to each other."

Ruby stared at her, blinking, and Yang pressed her advantage. If Ruby was ready to stand up for herself, then she was ready to listen--and to act. 

"Ruby, if Weiss had any idea how messed up last night was, she would never have done it." Yang sighed, leaning against one of the courtyard's crumbling pillars, lifting a hand as she spoke. "To her, she's being her normal spiteful self, just the way she always is when she's stressed out of her mind."

Ruby bit her lower lip, looking to Yang. "I don't know."

"I do." Yang met Ruby's gaze squarely. "Neither of you have been really all that honest with one another, have you?"

Ruby flinched. "I didn't--"

"Didn't say it was deliberate on your part. It just kind of happened, didn't it?" Yang asked, crossing her arms against her chest once again. 

"Between all the secrets and the stress and..." Ruby trailed off, her voice soft and sad when she continued. "I didn't mean for things to get so awful so quickly."

"And I doubt Weiss did, either." Yang hesitated then, trying to figure out a way to phrase things delicately. While she had her quiet frustrations with the way Ruby and Weiss were dancing about one another, now was not the time for that. Finally, she settled on, "In her own Weiss way, she cares about you."

"I care about her too." Ruby smiled, the tilt to her lips just barely there. It faded as she continued, "And I've been so scared of messing things up, that I..."

"Even when you should have challenged her harder, you put yourself last. Just like you always do," Yang supplied, because the pattern was never more apparent than with Weiss. 

"Yeah." The word escaped Ruby's lips barely more than a breath, and she wet her lips. "I need to talk to her. Really, really talk to her. That's the only way forward, isn't it?"

"You do need to talk to her--about ditching us without a word, about the secrets." Yang's voice was gentle as she added, "And maybe if you're also honest with her about everything, like Salem and what's up with you... Maybe you can start to heal, too."

Ruby's silver eyes were wistful. "You think she'll even want to talk? There's just so many secrets, Yang. What if she isn't interested in what I have to say?"

"What if she is?" Yang shrugged, uncrossing her arms and closing the distance between herself and Ruby once more. "But what I do know is that she cares about _you_ , and I've never doubted that, not since before Beacon fell. I trust she'll listen. You should trust her, too."

"I always trust her." Ruby's smile was a crooked, shaky thing, but it was genuine. She took a deep breath, reaching out and clasping Yang into a warm hug. Against Yang's scarf, she murmured, "Yang, I love her."

"I know." Yang had long since figured out Ruby's feelings were far more than a crush, something deeper, something more like what Yang felt for Blake. She'd just been waiting for that confirmation. Tightening her hold about Ruby's shoulders, she continued, "But that's a whole other crazy conversation with her. Sort out your friendship first, and the rest... it can come later."

"One day at a time." Ruby finally pushed away from Yang, wiping at her reddened eyes again with her knuckles. "Yeah. I... I really needed this talk. To vent, so I don't feel so much like... breaking, I guess. Thanks, Yang."

"What are big sisters for, huh?" Yang cuffed her shoulder, and so incredibly proud of her sister. "C'mon, let's head back. Need any tips on what you wanna say to her?"

"No. No, I think I've got this," Ruby said after a long moment, nodding. "Thanks." 

As they left the crumbling fortress courtyard, Ruby's smile hadn't faded, Yang realised with a jolt. Unlike all the others that day, those that had been weak and fleeting and false, this one had remained. 

Maybe things with Ruby would work out okay in the end, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope the stuff about Ruby being overprotected by her teammates, the massive failures in communication on Ruby's part (as much as Weiss') and also re: the deeper problems with Salem, haven't come too far out of left field. I'm not very good at subtle, which has been something I've been trying to do with Ruby's plotline.
> 
> That, and a bit of sleight of hand by distracting you all with Weiss, lmao. I think it's reasonably well projected when I've reread the chapters myself, but I'm the author and may just have the benefit of insider knowledge!
> 
> Ah well, again, I'm still pretty new at this whole complex plot thing, so I really apologise if this just didn't work for anyone. 
> 
> I also really apologise for not getting around to answering comments on the last chapter! I love all of them, and I promise I'll get right on that tomorrow. It's just been a hell of a past two weeks.
> 
> Also the chapter count for this fic is estimated at between 30-40 so... honey, you've got a big storm coming. 
> 
> ~~and as with all chapters, spot the meme and/or reference is a game you can play~~


	10. Those Who Fight Monsters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team RWBY reunites back at the apartment, and Blake and Weiss pitch their plan to test the SDC connection. Before all of that, however, Ruby wants Weiss to listen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am _so sorry_ for how long this chapter turned out! I just had a very clear idea where I wanted to end the interpersonal trainwreck arc and... 
> 
> Well, 15k words later.

The wind picked up, bitter and chilling, and huddling deeper into her coat, Weiss cast another sidelong glance in Blake's direction. They'd been stretched out on this damp, miserable rooftop for the better part of fifteen minutes, and as Blake continued to ignore her pointed stares, Weiss shifted, trying to relax the line of tension growing in her jaw. After all, she really only had herself to blame for the situation. They'd both agreed this was a prime location for a little surveillance--but that didn't mean Weiss didn't find herself twitching each time the wind whistled through the cracks in the side of the building.

Or that she didn't find herself growing more restless and irritable by the minute. 

"Must you really hoard the binoculars like this?" Weiss huffed, finally giving into the sharp prickle of annoyance growing between her shoulder blades. "I thought Faunus were meant to have incredible eyesight."

Blake didn't lower the binoculars, even if Weiss caught the telltale twitch of a smile on her lips. "Very subtle bait. Still not rising to it."

Weiss was not so distracted with her own problems that she missed the dry thread of humour in Blake's words. Clicking her tongue, Weiss reached across, plucking the binoculars from Blake's hands--manners be damned.

With either Ruby or Yang, such an action would have been immediately construed a declaration of war, with the dubious spoils going to the victor of a brutal game of oneupmanship. To Weiss' quiet relief, Blake merely shrugged, settling her chin on the arms she'd instead crossed in front of her face.

"You know, you could have just asked nicely," Blake told her mildly, her teeth flashing in a fleeting smile.

" _Please,_ " Weiss replied, her eyes narrowing a fraction and cyanide beneath the sweetness of her tone.

Blake only rolled her eyes, and satisfied she'd earned no further reprisal, Weiss lifted the binoculars to eye-level, looking out toward the warehouse in question. She skimmed past the high fences, looking beyond to the sharply-dressed security officers at each corner of the loading yard, the cameras, the spotlights--and imposing above it all, the crisp, white Schnee family sigil. 

Weiss' jaw tightened at the very sight. For all the obnoxiousness of its corporate branding, however, the central SDC Mantle depot was simply one of dozens of active distribution centres for a variety of different companies--all of them peppered in amongst warehouses that had simply fallen quiet and empty, businesses killed off during the years the continental railway network had been disabled during the Crisis. 

Being entirely landlocked and surrounded by mountains, Mantle's chief method of trade and distribution of essentials was by rail. While the SDC itself could certainly afford alternative aerial transport for their goods, that hardly meant Jacques was willing to fritter away lien. Especially when it was just as easy to secure a prime location along the city's extensive rail yard. 

And so, Weiss and Blake were stuck out on this godforsaken rooftop, examining the SDC's sole foothold in Mantle in hopes of discovering a way inside--one that _didn't_ involve guns blazing and so many unplanned explosions, Weiss amended with a quiet sigh. 

Weiss readjusted her position, propping herself up on an elbow as she tracked the direction of the vast field of rails stretching before them. From here, some of those lines went through the Mantle Central Station for public transport, while others appeared to be for a more industrial purpose, freight lines branching toward Atlas and all over Solitas. 

_Probably to the nearby Dust quarries, or perhaps to some of the decommissioned Atlesian military outposts abandoned during the war._ She sighed, pausing to pinch the bridge of her nose. Her lack of sleep was not doing her any favours today. 

"All jokes aside… thoughts?" Blake prompted, her voice soft. She shifted slightly, the leather of her jacket scraping loud on the warehouse's worn concrete roof. 

"Nothing useful." Weiss turned her binoculars back to the SDC warehouse, her mouth twisting unhappily as she scanned the structure once more. "The depot is just as tightly guarded as I theorised earlier. Cameras. Spotlights. The entire perimeter of the building will be lit up like a bonfire tonight."

Blake sighed, a touch of a groan to it as she said, "Makes it a little tougher to sneak in undetected."

"Weren't you the one who claimed she liked a challenge?" Weiss countered, lowering the binoculars as she shot Blake a look. 

"Key word being 'challenge', not 'impossible task'," Blake said, ignoring Weiss in favour of looking back toward the warehouse and reclaiming the binoculars in one smooth swoop. "I've done my time on the SDC's Most Wanted List. Surprisingly, it's not an experience I'd like to repeat."

"But that blurry mugshot the train's security caught was just _so appealing_ ," Weiss pointed out, and with a smirk she couldn't quite contain, she added with a lofty wave, "I'm sure Yang would just love a copy. Perhaps I have one archived somewhere."

"Did you just try to make a joke?" Blake's gaze flickered across to her, amusement in the quirk of her lips. "You're still not funny, but I admit, it's nice to see you trying."

Hardly wanting to encourage Blake's facetious comments by dignifying them with a response, Weiss held her silence. Blake's golden eyes narrowed a fraction, and for a long moment, they watched one another, waiting for the other to crack. 

Finally, Blake shrugged, turning back to her surveillance of the SDC depot across the half-mile of rusting train tracks. 

When Weiss had agreed to... _talk_ to Blake about everything--what had happened over the past year with the SDC, with her father, then with Whitley the night prior--merely calling it a very long and draining discussion did it disservice. From the time it took to find a secure area to the moment she'd finally fallen silent, Weiss felt hollowed out, like she'd been talking for so long her words had ceased to hold real meaning. Even now, her voice still felt a touch hoarse. 

Weiss could find the grace to admit one thing, however--Blake had been right. Even though talking about what had happened in no way changed her circumstances, what she had to do or what was coming, with each word and confession, Weiss had felt the strangling sensation in her chest begin to loosen, the metaphorical stab wound in her back begin to numb. 

Weiss was no fool. She hardly believed her problems with her father were solved by simply sharing the weight of her burden, but... It had been good as she'd dared to dream. To be open, to be _honest,_ and as difficult as it had been to allow it, she was glad Blake had pushed her. 

She still wasn't quite sure what she was going to do about Ruby and Yang, however. In the middle of a reconnaissance mission with Blake was hardly the time or the place to make a real decision. 

In the distance, Weiss caught the blast of a locomotive horn, and she grabbed the binoculars back from Blake with an irritable look. Far beyond the Mantle fence, she caught the gleam of sunlight on metal surfaces as a train began the twisting descent down the distant mountainside. 

Weiss' eyes narrowed as she hit zoom, instead turning her attention to the freight cars attached to the Dust-powered engine. Her mouth twisted.

"The SDC logo," she told Blake, her voice low.

Blake's golden gaze sharpened, and she nodded. "Looks like a delivery, and if all of those cars are full... That's a lot of Dust."

"Probably another attempt to make up the missing stock." Weiss frowned, and for a long few moments, she watched the freight train's slow approach to Mantle's city limits. She clicked her tongue, irritable. "From my understanding, it has been several months of theft. I don't doubt some suppliers are feeling the pinch by now."

Blake made a sound beneath her breath. "I bet the SDC suits in logistics are in throes of pure delight over supply and demand."

"Perhaps." Weiss' jaw tightened, and she pushed the binoculars back toward Blake. She shifted her shoulders, trying to rid them of the stiffness that had built up between them as she said, "Even with Lawson's exploits, don't forget that the SDC _itself_ is hardly above market manipulation and undercutting." 

"And to think the SDC was once just so reputable," Blake replied, her voice dry.

"Witty sarcasm aside, my grandfather would be turning in his grave." Weiss looked back toward the SDC depot, frowning as she caught the beginnings of movement in the cargo yard--guards, and probably half a dozen administration clerks. "With that amount of Dust, however, they'll surely be unloading late into the night."

Blake shifted, turning her attention back to the depot as she asked, "How many workers do you think that will take?"

Weiss scoffed--an easy question for anyone marginally familiar with SDC corporate procedure, guidelines and the occasional revisory memorandum. Such things had been her business and responsibility to know at the snap of her father's fingers, from the moment Winter had burned her bridges. 

"Based on the number of containers, insurance policy and minimum health and safety requirements in staffing... Two dozen at any given time." Weiss cast a narrow look toward some of the other depots along the trainline, noting their shabby paint jobs, the cracks in the reinforced cement. "Perhaps more, if this particular depot is running the same sort of cash-in-hand operation most of these other warehouses will taking advantage of."

"I just love the smell of rotten, corporate greed at high noon," Blake replied. Her facetious tone fading, she observed with a small wave of her hand, "Employees paid off the books wouldn't get the same protections."

"And aren't likely to blow the whistle, either," Weiss added, and as she watched the flurry of motion continue in the depot's loading yard, her gaze sharpened, realisation dawning. "Or be paid the same sort of _attention_."

"So there could be a large number of people--who aren't on the books--on-site tonight." Blake nodded, the corner of her mouth curling up in a hint of a smile. "I see where you're going with this."

"Weren't _you_?" Weiss scoffed beneath her breath, refusing to buy the act. 

"We'd need backup, no two ways about it." Blake shifted, resettling herself to sit cross-legged on the chilly cement rooftop and pulling her leather jacket about herself more tightly. "Someone to keep an eye on things in the loading bays, while we get what we need from the system, and someone on watch outside for any... surprises."

Weiss scowled, irritation prickling down the length of her spine as she said, "You know, you _can_ say her name."

"I'm sorry, but which one of us decided crime scene analysis in an abandoned murder-warehouse was preferable to talking to Ruby?" Blake asked, her tone disgustingly saccharine. 

Weiss barely bit back the immediate, vitriolic response that flashed to mind about _hypocrisy_ and _running_. Instead, she forced herself to pause, to take a deep, steadying breath. Anger was still far too reflexive a reaction since her conversation with Whitley--an old crutch she was far too willing to fall back on. 

Blake didn't deserve her rage--and neither did the rest of the team. Weiss knew she had to try harder.

"It was either that, or..." Weiss paused, and despite her quiet concession, it still took a nigh inhuman effort to add, "You know that perhaps I can be quite..."

"Bad-tempered? Spiteful? Stubborn?" Blake shrugged off Weiss' glare, spreading her hands wide. A train horn sounded, closer this time. They both ignored it. "Stop me if none of these words satisfy, because I could go on like this for a while."

"Spare me the dry Belladonna wit. I'm _trying._ " Weiss slowly pushed herself up, curling her legs beneath her. "It... was better that I didn't see Ruby, after what Whitley told me. I didn't know how I'd react. I didn't even know how I'd handle _you._ "

Blake sighed, the sound of it weary, even if she didn't argue the logic. Instead, she tilted her head to the side, offering quietly, "I think, if you told Ruby and Yang what you told me... you might be surprised."

"I hate surprises," Weiss snapped, automatic and blistering, but at Blake's answering eyeroll, she forced herself to relent. She waved an irritable hand. "Fine. Suppose I did confess it all. What would that even achieve?"

"Not everything must be a means to an end, you know."

Weiss' jaw tightened, and she looked back over the vast railway tracks, to where the train was pulling up at the SDC depot's platform. Exhaling sharply, she replied, "And not everything is _safe_ to tell."

"That's the part I don't quite get." Blake's voice was soft, drawing Weiss' reluctant attention back to her. She was frowning, holding up a hand to stay Weiss' immediate, impatient response. "Hear me out. Let's pretend that you're somehow correct, and telling Yang and Ruby achieves nothing--not even peace of mind for you. But what it would _harm_? Even if you only gave them a basic understanding--"

"You don't know him the way I do," Weiss cut in, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, frustrated. After all the details they'd been through, all his machinations, _now_ Blake decided she had a problem?

Blake's gaze was unflinching. "Trust me, Weiss, I really think I can appreciate how extreme his views are."

"Not just his views." Weiss hated how tight her voice was, but if she relaxed her guard a moment, she couldn't be sure a tremble in it wouldn't betray her. "You don't understand how far he'll go to make a _point_ , if he decides a point indeed must be made."

"Fine, I'll bite. What's the point you think he wants to make?"

"I don't know yet, and that's a part of the problem! I haven't spoken to him since I found... the _files._ " Weiss' hands curled into fists on her knees. "If I knew what he really wanted from all of this, then I'd have a much better chance of fighting him! But I've never known him to act so..."

 _Brutally decisive._ Toward his family, at the very least. He'd always claimed that he'd done it all for his family. Weiss supposed that at some point, he'd simply ceased granting her that dubious honour. 

"They could help, you know," Blake said, holding up her hand as Weiss opened her mouth to snap back, her tone growing sharper as she added, "Yang has all sorts of contacts that might be able to dig up the truth, and don't underestimate Ruby, either. Give them both some credit."

Weiss' jaw clenched so tightly she felt her skull begin to ache, and she burst out, "The entire team is at risk if--"

"Look, I hate to break up your martyr monologue, but I really want you to take a step back and think critically." There was no gentleness to Blake's voice now, just unflinching opposition as she put down her case. "You say Jacques is a danger--to all of us. Knowledge or not, he still has the power to hurt us. What would it change, for him, if all of Team RWBY knew your situation?"

"Control." The word was practically dragged from between Weiss' clenched teeth. It always was _control_. 

Blake's scowl was flat and furious, a bite to her tone as she snapped back, "And you're just going to cede that feeling of control to him?" She shook her head, as if she couldn't quite believe it. "Weiss--"

"Don't mistake this for cowardice, Blake," Weiss broke in, unable to keep the blistering acid from her tone any longer. If Blake wanted another fight, then she was only too happy to oblige. At least she wouldn't need to worry about wrecking a crime scene, here. "If he isn't challenged, then he won't think to pay attention to what _Winter_ is doing. If he thinks me defeated, then perhaps--"

"Perhaps he'll get overconfident," Blake finished for her, frustrated and unhappy, her mouth a flat line. "Perhaps Winter will pull off that miracle you're holding out for." 

"And I need to give her the best shot I can." Weiss pressed the heel of her palm against her temple for a moment, drawing deeply on the dregs of her patience. "This isn't just about me, Blake. This mission of Winter's is dangerous, time-sensitive, barely legal from what I've been allowed to know and god only knows what I _don't._

"If this last gambit fails, then that's it. We lose, and every person he's hurt and killed and screwed over will go unavenged." Weiss' eyes narrowed, and she lifted her chin as she met Blake's gaze squarely. "If the cost of victory is a little pain as I keep my mouth shut, then..."

Blake's frown wasn't accepting--it was one of worry. "And if the cost of victory happens to be taking him down with you?"

"Then so be it." Weiss exhaled, long and low. She knew how it sounded. "But I want Winter to come through with the SDC report. I want her to find the contradictory files, the payment transfers, all the proof of corruption she can! I want to watch him burn--not tie myself to the pyre alongside him."

"Fine, it's all very noble and not breathtaking stupidity," Blake said, a twist of dark humour to it, but her golden eyes were serious when she continued. "Just consider this, then. Your father sees you as the enemy, and based on how prepared he was for your digging, has considered you such for a long time. It's not Whitley he's seen as the biggest threat. It's not even Winter--it's you."

"Whitley is acting as a double agent, and my father has no reason to act against him. Winter..." Weiss looked back toward the SDC depot, her mouth twisting. "Winter has the protection of a very long and illustrious career with the Atlesian military, while I compromised myself by letting him control my every action and public appearance. I'm the obvious target. The weak link."

"But you're the _threat,_ or he wouldn't have been so decisive." Blake inhaled, as if bracing herself. "So what does Jacques Schnee do to his enemies?"

"Blackmail. Bankruptcy. Market manipulation. Has his underling thugs stalk and intimidate families." Weiss waved a hand, because frankly she'd observed no upper--or lower--limit to what her father and the company deemed _reasonable._ "Was there a point to all this, other than to demonstrate exactly what sort of monster my father is, or--"

"And what end does all of that achieve?" Blake cut in, tilting her head. She didn't wait on an answer, gesturing to Weiss sharply as she continued. "It removes the target's support systems, it undermines their confidence, the resources they normally could call on. It's isolation tactics, Weiss. Perhaps you aren't heroically enabling Winter's victory--you might just be walking blindly into his trap."

Weiss frowned--and for the first time since she'd left the apartment to speak with Whitley, she felt herself hesitate. Blake seemed to read it in her expression and her silence. Sighing, she reached out to squeeze Weiss' shoulder just the once. 

"Consider letting them in. I'm not sure you've got a lot left to lose, at this point." Blake's lips twitched in a humourless smile as she withdrew her hand. "And besides. I still think you owe Ruby both an apology and an explanation for being such an asshole."

 _Ruby._ Weiss looked away from Blake, ice twisting like a blade in her chest. "I'll think about it." 

"I'm glad to hear it." Slowly, Blake climbed to her feet, stretching her back with an audible click as she straightened. "We should get back to the others. Heists don't plan themselves."

" _Please_ don't mention the word 'heist' where Yang might hear," Weiss groaned beneath her breath, and after a moment's consideration, she accepted Blake's offered hand. 

"What? Not feeling up for a rewatch of the Mistralian Job in lieu of actual planning?" Blake asked, huffing a soft laugh as they headed for the edge of the roof. 

Weiss didn't bother dignifying that remark with a response.

###

"Yang? Ruby? Are you back yet?" Blake called out as she unlocked the front door of the apartment, taking the lead with a tired look when Weiss lingered outside perhaps a few moments too long. 

Despite Weiss' earlier promise to herself, her irritation twisted like a snarl in her chest. It wasn't that she was afraid of Yang or Ruby, or of any harsh words that might now be exchanged given the debatably poor quality of her choices. Blake's words from Lawson's warehouse-- _you're not just destroying yourself, you're destroying her_ \--kept rattling around in Weiss' skull, disjointed and persistent, and the tension coiling in her chest ratcheted tighter with each rumination. 

Weiss had hardly been exaggerating, when she'd told Blake she'd stayed away for fear of her own actions. The truth was, even having talked everything over with Blake, she still wasn't certain she could trust herself _not_ to take an approach that left her friendships in ruins. 

She just--didn't _know._

"In the kitchen!" Yang called out as Weiss trailed inside after Blake, a tightness to her voice that sparked a reluctant, low note of worry in Weiss' stomach. "We're just trying to patch up my stupid-- _ouch_ , can you go easy with that needle, Ruby?" 

Blake's eyebrows lowered just a fraction, and she looked back to Weiss in alarm. Weiss could only offer her a shrug. Yang biting off more than she could chew was honestly par for the course on any given mission. 

Blake quickened her stride, her voice raising as she demanded, _"Needle_? I left you alone for all of half a day, Yang!"

Trailing in Blake's wake, Weiss found herself lingering in the doorway to the kitchen, forgoing her first instinct to aggressively commandeer all attention in the room, to bend the uncomfortable situation to her will. Instead, she settled for simply casting an eye over her team. 

In spite of everything she'd promised herself, Weiss' gaze was drawn first toward Ruby, inexorable and instinctive in a way that troubled her and sent a thrill down her spine in the very same heartbeat. Her partner was in one piece, even if there were still mud splatters on Ruby's sleeves, cheek and cloak, her hair still dishevelled from the wind and rain. Weiss couldn't quite suppress her quiet sigh of relief when she realised she'd dodged a metaphorical bullet--Ruby's attention was still entirely on Yang, who was seated rather impatiently at the small kitchen table. 

Yang was dressed down into one of her tastelessly yellow tank tops and grey sweatpants, exposing her shoulder and bicep--and the mess of clawmarks and teeth marring her flesh. Her expression wasn't pained, just petulant, and she shifted restlessly in her chair as Ruby leaned in close with a damp cloth. Ruby's fingers were bloody as she dabbed at one of the messy wounds, a bowl of crimson coloured water threatening to slosh all over the tabletop as Blake stalked closer. 

"Yang, what happened?" Blake's voice was flat, and with a sharp yank, she pulled out one of the remaining chairs.

"Hello to you too." Yang blew a stray lock of hair back from her face, and she waved her metal hand, grumbling, "It was just a misunderstanding, that's all."

Blake's expression was irate as she sat backwards in her chair, arms crossed over the back of it. Weiss couldn't quite master her own smirk--petty or not, she was glad it was someone _else's_ turn to be on the receiving end of Blake's cutting observations.

"It looks like an ursa used you as a scratching post."

"A really _big_ misunderstanding, then." Yang's expression was sour. 

Ruby rocked back on her heels with a frustrated sigh as Blake's gaze instead settled on her, brushing her hair away from her face with the clean heel of her palm.

"We were on our way home and--not gonna name names, but _somebody_ \--wanted to take a shortcut through a cave," Ruby told Blake, taking hold of Yang's shoulder again with firm and steady hands. 

"And in that time, you somehow got into a 'misunderstanding' with an ursa?" Blake asked, arching an eyebrow, looking across to Yang again with an expression that begged the only logical question, ' _Really?'_

"Make that three ursa." Ruby shrugged, biting down on her lower lip as she readied her needle again. "I tried to talk her out of it, I promise!"

"I'm not entirely sure I believe that," Weiss said, the cutting remark slipping from her lips before she could think to hold her silence. As Ruby paused, those silver eyes flickering toward Weiss, she felt the agonising tension in her chest twist even tighter. 

She'd been fooling herself--of course, Ruby had known she was there the whole time. She just hadn't acknowledged it. It rang a warning in Weiss' skull, joining Blake's words from Lawson's warehouse. 

Weiss swallowed, her throat suddenly parched, and she tried to temper the instinctive venom from her tone as she added, "You were probably taking bets on who could get through the fastest."

"Maybe," Ruby replied, the word falling odd and stilted between them. There was a spark of something near unrecognisable in her eyes--and for the second time in the space of an hour, Weiss felt herself hesitate. 

With Ruby suddenly there, tangible and real and somehow entirely unreadable, every dismissive remark Weiss had considered, every attempt to brush off the past fourteen hours--it all seemed woefully inadequate. Sweat prickled between her shoulder blades, down the back of her neck. 

"Hey," Weiss said, feeling wholly, painfully uncertain. Her thoughts were stumbling and off-kilter, and she scrambled to make sense of the strangling sensation of fear welling up in her chest at Ruby's quietness. Finally, she tried, "You're wearing the new gear. It... it looks good."

For all the way the sleek, fur-lined leather still made Weiss' thoughts rebel, made them take detours in entirely inappropriate directions--it was still vastly preferable to the uncomfortable, charged silence that had fallen between them. 

Ruby's cheeks flushed at the observation, and she fumbled the needle, earning both a sharp yelp from Yang and a sympathetic hiss from Blake. Shamefaced and giving up the effort for a lost cause, Ruby moved aside without a word, handing both the needle and the cloth to Blake before retreating to the kitchen sink. 

Both Blake and Yang were watching her, Weiss realised with a jolt. Blake offered her a shrug and a level look, and Yang nodded in Ruby's direction, making a zipping motion across her own lips. 

Weiss nodded, understanding the meaning. There'd be no interference from that quarter--and likewise, no support. 

She looked back to where Ruby was rinsing the blood from her hands at the sink. It was only with her partner's back to her that Weiss dared let her gaze linger--on her shoulders, at the mud splatters and grass stains on that red cloak. How in the world was she meant to approach... _this?_

Weiss had expected anger on her return, of course. She'd expected demands. What she _hadn't_ expected was this painful awkwardness, or Ruby's reticence, or--or that _they_ would be why the knife twisted so hard in Weiss' chest. 

She didn't enjoy the feeling, reactionary anger beginning to filter up through the icy grasp of fear. 

As she watched Ruby dry her hands on one of the towels hanging over by the oven, Weiss caught the flash of a seam across her palm, the stitches red and inflamed. 

"You're hurt." It slipped out, jagged and accusatory before she could clamp down on it, and Ruby looked up, her expression guarded. 

"Yeah," Ruby said, and she ran her other thumb over the row of stitches. There was an odd set to her mouth as she looked up to meet Weiss' stare. "Weiss, I..."

"That needs treating again," Weiss told her, harsh and uncompromising. Lectures, busywork, anger--they were far easier than trying to figure out the snarl of emotion in her chest. They were far, far easier than apologising. Looking toward the first aid kit, open on the table by Yang's forearm, she said, already moving, "I'll get the aura creams--"

 _"Weiss."_ Ruby's voice held a low note of warning, and despite everything in her head screaming for her to keep moving, keep _busy,_ Weiss felt herself slow. Reluctantly, she looked over her shoulder, to where Ruby approached her, the distance between them reduced to just a pace. "You don't need to--"

"I _want_ to," Weiss broke in, too sharp and too fast and too _angry_. Far too aware of how the space between them had dwindled but refusing to concede an inch, she lifted her chin defiantly to met Ruby head on. "I want to, Ruby--"

"I can take care of _myself,_ Weiss!" Ruby broke in, anger flaring hot in her eyes, the heat of it giving her words an edge Weiss rarely witnessed. 

Tension bled from Ruby, all-pervasive and all-consuming, in the stiffness to her shoulders and the stubborn set of her jaw. It surged electric between them, drawing tighter and tighter until Weiss was certain something vital and irreplaceable would just _snap._

Weiss had spent her life getting angry, allowing it to rule her, picking all the wrong fights alongside the right ones--and abruptly, she remembered. It was not a fight, not with Ruby. Their relationship was not a struggle to be won, and Ruby was not just another faceless test of the strength of Weiss' will. 

Yielding was not a concession with Ruby, and it never had been. Somewhere along the line, in all this mess with her father and Whitley, Weiss had forgotten that. The realisation _hurt._

"I know you can," Weiss said, her voice soft. Ruby's eyes widened, her stubborn, hurt anger flickering and warring with her surprise as she stared down at Weiss. 

Finally, she deflated, looking to the side, her lips pressed tight. "Fine."

Weiss inhaled as Ruby moved for the couch, still shaken by the fury she'd read in Ruby's expression, the intensity in her eyes. Neither Blake nor Yang breathed a word as she grabbed the ointments and creams from the kit, merely offering her encouraging and cautious looks respectively. 

"Mantle Grimm are just like all the stories." Ruby's voice was quiet as Weiss took the spot next to her on the couch, the cushions sinking beneath their weight. 

Unable to trust herself with a reply, Weiss pulled her gloves off, leaving them folded on the couch's padded armrest. Ruby didn't resist when Weiss reached out to take her injured hand, merely watching as Weiss ran her fingers across the edge of the inflammation. The neatness of the stitching suggested Blake's handiwork--but when? 

Weiss didn't normally allow herself the level of physical contact Ruby, Yang and Blake were so familiar with. Casual brushes, hugs, _contact_ \--she'd never been afforded such things as a child, and as a teenager and an adult she'd found them pointless at best and uncomfortable at worst.

For Ruby, however, Weiss found herself constantly second-guessing that, instead finding herself _wishing_ for it with a sharpness that concerned her. It was why she was so considered in her physical contact with Ruby now--once she gave in, where was the upper limit? Where would she want to stop?

Weiss' fingertips traced the stitching again, seeking the extent of the inflammation's heat, her gaze locked on the hint of scars, silver on tanned skin, on the unique callouses from Crescent Rose. Weiss felt her stomach twist, hot with shame and want. For all that she held herself away from Ruby, fearing what she denied herself, she was letting her touch linger, stupid and sentimental and _weak._

Whitley was entirely correct--her feelings for Ruby constantly compromised her will, a weakness she would never be free from.

When Weiss looked up, however, Ruby was studying her. There was a sharp attentiveness to those silver eyes, a tilt to her head--Weiss only barely stopped herself from recoiling, her mouth suddenly parched. 

"You went beyond the fence with Yang?" Weiss managed, finally finding her voice just to divert Ruby's attention. 

"Blake didn't tell you?" Ruby frowned then, casting a narrow look toward the kitchen table and looking far more bothered than Weiss had expected. She looked back to Weiss, her scowl fading. "Yeah, we went on a hunting trip. It was... I needed it. A lot."

Nodding and remembering how restless Ruby often found herself, Weiss grabbed the tube she'd left on the armrest and twisted off the cap. She squeezed out a small amount of the medicated cream, her fingertips and aura tingling at the contact. Ruby flinched at the first touch, pulling back hard enough to break Weiss' hold on her wrist. 

Weiss glared at her, unimpressed. "Do you want that to keep hurting? You keep moving around!"

"Well, you keep poking it! Maybe try to be a little more gentle?" Ruby's cheeks coloured, but with a low, irritable growl, she surrendered her hand once more. Her breath hissed out between her teeth as Weiss--more gently, _exactly_ as requested--began to apply the cream. "But the forests along the eastern borders are really cool. We even found one of those goliaths Vanta talked about!"

Weiss looked up when she realised the forced note to Ruby's voice had given away to genuine cheer, pausing when she caught the hesitant, crooked tilt to Ruby's lips.

"Is that right?" she found herself asking, returning Ruby's smile with one of her own, and after a moment, the unbearable tension in her chest began to loosen. She finished up the application of the cream, before wiping the remnants on the edge of Ruby's cloak. 

Ruby's smile grew a little more certain, and with a small laugh and a duck of her head, she replied, "Hey, I totally have proof! Yang, show her!"

Still under Blake's strict care, Yang waved her metal hand with a disgusted expression. "Kinda busy getting stitched up myself, here! Just--think fast!"

Ruby jolted as Yang pitched her scroll at them, and suddenly the smell of roses commandeered Weiss' every sense. Ruby's semblance-touched momentum sent her stumbling, and she caught herself on Weiss' shoulder with her uninjured hand, suddenly so warm and close Weiss forgot how to breathe. 

Every thought in Weiss' head froze as the scent of roses and Ruby unspun her thoughts, sapped at her strength of will, her sense of self. She inhaled--sharp, shallow and soundless. 

"Sorry," Ruby told her, oblivious, darting away to a distance that didn't play havoc with Weiss' head, before shoving Yang's scroll in Weiss' face. "See! Yang took a selfie and everything! Believe me now?"

"You're effusive and enthusiastic, but hardly a liar," Weiss told her, but obediently accepted the scroll before Ruby could hit her in the nose with it, holding it back to take a look at the photo pulled up on Yang's screen. Both of the sisters were covered in mud, dark Grimm blood and it looked like Ruby had more than a few pine needles stuck in her hair, but... that smile of Ruby's was breathtaking. Passing the scroll back to Ruby, she added, "It's a good photo."

"...yeah." Ruby rubbed the back of her neck, casting a look Weiss' way. Her silver eyes were open and earnest as they searched Weiss' expression. "I kinda wish you'd been there, Weiss."

Weiss swallowed, unsteady and far, far too honest as she said, "I wish I had been, too." 

Ruby's expression flickered again, a kaleidoscope of hurt and emotion Weiss couldn't hope to adequately track, before she looked to the floor. Silence fell between them, and now more than ever, Weiss felt like she had to offer Ruby _something._

"But my absence was far from fruitless," she told Ruby, inhaling in a vain attempt to relocate her sense of propriety. "Blake and I have had a breakthrough or five in the Stalker case."

Over at the table, Weiss heard Blake set the needle down with a long-suffering sigh. "Oh, are we invited back into the conversation?"

"And I thought I needed to dial back on the smartass comments," Yang observed, leaning on her metal elbow with a wide smile.

"It's a coping mechanism," Blake replied, entirely deadpan as she leaned in to kiss Yang on the tip of her nose. 

Weiss rolled her eyes, clicking her tongue in feigned disgust. "You're _both_ incorrigible."

"You know what? I totally agree, and I don't even know what that word _means_ ," Ruby said, shooting Weiss a small smile. She looked over the back of the couch, to where Blake was climbing to her feet. "So, enough keeping us in suspense! What'd you find?"

"Actually? Weiss wasn't exaggerating. We found quite a lot." The bowl clattered in the sink as Blake emptied its contents down the drain, before turning the faucet to begin to scrub at the blood on her hands. "Remember how all that Dust was stolen by Lawson's crew? It's still there, sitting in an unsecured warehouse. Not compounded as evidence, and certainly not given back to the SDC."

At Ruby's questioning look, Weiss offered a shrug. "It seems to me that not only was the SDC not responsible for what happened to Lawson, but they may not even be aware that the missing stock was found in his possession."

Yang drummed her metal fingers on the kitchen table with a restless, constant energy, a pattern Weiss could almost make sense of before it changed again. "Can't imagine why a poor, corrupt city like Mantle might want to keep hush-hush about the fortune of Dust they stumbled on."

Blake finished up at the sink, wiping her hands off on the towel hanging by the oven before crossing her arms against her chest. "We came to much the same conclusion."

"Vanta seemed to dislike both Atlas and the SDC a lot, but..." Ruby hesitated, her eyebrows drawn together in a frown as she glanced in Weiss' direction again. "Sorry, Weiss, but this sort of corruption from _Vanta_ seems a little off. At least to me."

Yang snorted beneath her breath, sinking down onto the couch armrest opposite from Weiss. Her shoulder had been tightly wrapped in neat bandages, and she flicked the back of Ruby's head with her metal fingers. "You say that because you were the only one on the team she took a liking to."

"If you can even call it 'liking'," Ruby muttered, and she brushed her thumb along the raised seam along her palm. 

"Vanta's not the only one who wields power in Mantle--Stephen Carmine, the head of the Mantle ruling council, comes to mind." Weiss sighed then, because as much as she disliked Scherwiz and the as-yet undefined risk she represented, she was hardly a lone figure at the top of the Mantle food chain. As Ruby shot her a smile for her implied support that sent her stomach fluttering, she cleared her throat and continued. "Regardless, the SDC connection still remains... alive and well, I suppose."

"How do you mean?" Ruby asked, and over by the sink, beyond her partner's field of vision, Blake nodded, taking Weiss' the unspoken cue. 

"A lot went down at the warehouse--a lot that seemed to have escaped the notice of whoever was supposed to be logging the evidence with the file." Blake shifted, pulling her scroll from her pocket as she approached the couch. She brought up the pictures she'd snapped of the chalk symbols they'd found earlier. "Now, I can't be entirely sure, but these appear to be Mistralian runes, found in the corner of the warehouse."

Yang leaned back, her expression thoughtful as she flicked through the images. Weiss recalled that she'd been the one conducting background research on the many and varied victims listed in the Stalker file--and that her focus had been limited to Lawson's team by necessity. 

"None of Lawson's gang was from Mistral," Yang said slowly, passing the scroll across to Ruby for a closer look. She rolled her bandaged shoulder, wincing at the pull as she added, "Heck, I don't even think any of them have stepped a foot on Anima soil. Vale, Atlas and Mantle really had been the extent of their travels."

Weiss nodded. "So it wasn't something the victims just up and started doing on a whim. We should consider taking what we know to someone more familiar with the field."

"We are not talking to Raven, if that's what you're getting at." Yang scowled, crossing her arms against her chest. "Over my dead body--probably literally, knowing her."

Ruby frowned, nudging Yang in the ribs with an elbow as she ventured, "I'm sure we can find help somewhere else." 

"Atlas probably has a professor or two with some authority on the topic. Perhaps some of us can make the trip to find out?" Blake waved a hand, studiously ignoring the scowl Weiss sent her way. 

_Yes, send us to Atlas, where my father's influence is the strongest,_ she thought, bitter and unhappy. 

"You said there was more?" Ruby asked, tilting her head to the side as her silver eyes narrowed. "What's the SDC connection, then?"

"Lawson... appeared to have been undertaking amateur surveillance." Weiss exhaled, drawing her own scroll out and pulling up the full copy she'd made of the grainy footage and hitting play. "We found footage of the warehouse--almost a week's worth of data on who his team was, who they had on location, and when they began to... disappear."

Yang's eyebrows rose as she watched Lawson's gang move about the warehouse, a full week before they'd vanished, before she frowned across at Weiss. "Wait, isn't this exactly what we need?"

"There appears to have been a significant degree of Grimm-based degradation at rather inopportune times." Blake leaned across, closing the full copy of the surveillance file and opening the fragment they'd made before--and after--Lawson had been found dead. 

As they watched the footage, Yang's expression darkened, and by the time Lawson's fate was lost to a sea of dark static, Ruby's mouth had grown flat and tight. 

"You're right. That looks a lot like data corruption." Ruby's silver eyes flickered across to Weiss, serious and razor-sharp. "And you said there were more moments like this?"

"It happened... frequently. Throughout the week leading up to Lawson's death." Weiss shifted her shoulders beneath Ruby's stare, uncomfortable. She'd missed those flickers the first time, believing them to be nothing more sinister than glitches in poor equipment. It was difficult not to take that failure personally. "It leads me to believe this Grimm is sentient enough to mark its targets and pursue with single-minded purpose."

Blake nodded, before shifting. From her back pocket, she drew out a badly-damaged scroll, wrapped in one of Weiss' evidence bags--an item they'd recovered shortly before they'd left Lawson's warehouse for the last time. 

"This was Vermillia Stratworth's scroll," Blake told Ruby, passing her the shattered device with a sigh.

"Wow. Just how hard did she throw this?" Ruby's eyebrows rose, and she turned it over in her hands with restless energy. Her lips quirked, crooked and eager. "You know, I _might_ be able to get it working again."

"You really think you can?" Weiss asked, frowning. 

"It's worth a shot!" Ruby opened the ziplock bag, even if she didn't reach in to take proper hold of the scroll. She bit down on her lower lip, carefully using the plastic to turn the device over again, her silver eyes intense as she noted detail beyond Weiss' own fledgling grasp of scroll technology. She nodded to herself, before looking across to Weiss. "I'll replace a few things, give it a bit of a charge, and maybe we'll be in luck! There could be something on there that... helps. Can I get a copy of that spycam footage? And the photos of the... runes, or whatever they are?"

Weiss nodded, beginning the transfer of files across to Ruby with a few quick swipes. 

"There was... one more thing," Weiss said, finally setting her scroll aside, unbuckling her Dust supplies pouch and withdrawing the last piece of evidence she and Blake had uncovered. She watched Ruby's expression carefully. "This truck mirror was found beside where Lawson's body fell. We can't be sure, but I believe he twisted the mirror off the truck whilst being pursued by the Grimm."

Ruby's face went white as she caught sight of the ichor still caught on the mirror, black against the dark, dried blood, and no matter how quickly she mastered herself, Weiss couldn't help but notice the way her partner recoiled at the sight. The memory of Ruby's reaction to finding it in Lawson's body stuck like thorns in the front of her mind, and Weiss felt her hands slowly tighten into fists in her lap. 

"Why--" Ruby hesitated, wetting her lips and looking to Weiss, the question obvious in her eyes. "Why would he use a mirror?" 

Weiss' mouth twisted unhappily, and she passed the bag across to Yang for a closer look. "I have no answers yet. Maybe he believed he needed it. Why else stop to do it, if he really was being pursued?"

Yang gave the mirror a critical once-over, before nodding to herself and passing it to Blake for safe keeping. She crossed her arms against her chest, shrugging as she told them, "Whatever the case, we can still take it in for testing. You know, see if all that blood really is Lawson's--and another sample of the evil witch slime doesn't hurt."

"Yeah. Maybe we can have some... _different_ tests run," Ruby said with a nod, her expression distant and thoughtful. 

Before Weiss could press Ruby for greater detail, Yang's violet eyes flickered, sly and delighted. All of a sudden, Weiss couldn't help the feeling of impending doom. 

"Oh, I'm sure it'll be..." Yang trailed off, her lips curving up into the most obnoxious smile Weiss had ever had the misfortune of witnessing. " _Schneesy_ -peasy!" 

Yang even had the audacity to _wink,_ and in that moment, Weiss felt her patience fragment. She grabbed a hold of one of her discarded gloves on the couch's armrest, pitching it right at Yang's stupid face. The leather made a satisfying _thwack_ as it hit home, but it had little of the desired affect as Yang threw back her head and cackled. 

Scowling, Weiss accused her, "You have been dying to make those awful Schnee jokes this whole time, haven't you?"

"'Awful jokes'?" Yang repeated, fishing Weiss' glove up and off the ground and passing it back. Her smile widened, and Weiss had just enough time to groan as she said, "Jealou _schnee_ doesn't suit you, Weiss, though I understand it's difficult to handle being so outclassed by my comedic timing."

Weiss' eyes narrowed a fraction, and for half a heartbeat, she considered the dozen sharp comments flitting through her mind. But at her side, Ruby was barely suppressing her giggles at the terrible puns, and Blake was suddenly studying the wall of evidence with intense interest and tightly compressed lips. 

Weiss sighed, before finally letting her own smile slip her guard. Lifting a haughty hand, she said, "I _Schnee_ what you're doing, Yang, and two can play at that game." 

Yang's smile faltered, and casting a tragic look in Weiss' direction, she groaned, "Must you ruin everything I love?"

Weiss' own laugh caught her by surprise, light and reluctant but completely genuine. She'd been afraid that things would stay awkward and strained between all of them, that they'd bury themselves in the business of the mission--that Yang especially would hold a grudge over having essentially lied to her face. 

Things could still be good, and Weiss couldn't help the dizzying relief welling up in her chest as the rest of Team RWBY joined in laughing. 

"But you guys have a plan to go along with all of this information, right?" Yang asked when the laughter subsided, shooting Weiss a smile as she lifted her metal hand. "Spill the beans, Schnee."

"Lawson and his crew were repeatedly watched by our Grimm. They were also employed by the SDC." Weiss hesitated, sobering as her stomach twisted reflexively. She wasn't about to let her problems compromise her ability to help her team, however. "The SDC uses cutting edge technology, not covert, discount spycams."

"You think the SDC might have intact footage of the Grimm." Ruby's eyebrows drew together, before her gaze sharpened in realisation. "If it really was watching them, it likely did it at multiple locations." 

Over the back of the couch, Blake was nodding, but despite the mildness of her expression, her golden eyes were fierce. "So our plan is infiltration of the SDC depot. Tonight."

Ruby's gaze flickered back to Weiss immediately. "Are you okay with that? Given how things... are? You don't _have_ to."

Weiss shook her head sharply, looking back to each member of Team RWBY, steeling herself. She appreciated the thought, she really did, but... "I'm the best shot we have, given we can't just _ask nicely_."

"I mean, have you seen Ruby smile lately-- _owww_ , what is with you and the pointy elbows today?!" Yang growled as Ruby glared and shoved her in the side again, almost hard enough to send her tumbling. Only saving herself by latching onto the back of Ruby's hood, Yang winced and rubbed at her ribs. "Well, I bet she could!"

Quietly, Weiss had to agree--it was an incredible smile, but she'd hardly admit such a thing aloud. Instead, she rolled her eyes at Yang, her tone dripping false sweetness as she said, " _Try_ to be serious for a change."

Yang shot her a curious look, then, her violet gaze suddenly very thoughtful. Why? As alarmed as Weiss was at the sudden change, she didn't have the time to dwell on it. With an overdramatic groan, Ruby pushed herself to her feet to stand in front of the team.

"Infiltration of the SDC." There was a spark back in Ruby's eyes, and she flashed a quicksilver smile that made Weiss' heart ache. "Sounds _totally_ doable!"

"In the whole possible international incident kind of way," Blake said, crossing her arms with a fond smile. 

Yang laughed, telling her, "Only if we get caught!" 

"Which we _wont_ , because Team RWBY is _awesome._ " Ruby looked to Blake and Weiss, that wonderful smile growing a little wider. "Any ideas on how to go about it, or do I have to do this whole strategy thing on my own?"

Blake's smile turned razor-sharp, and she pulled her scroll out of her pocket. "Oh, Weiss and I have some... suggestions."

###

It was around an hour of contentious, spirited discussion before Team RWBY could agree on a plan. Their best shot, Yang and Ruby had agreed, was to wait until the shift change at the depot close to midnight, and slip in amongst the extra workers. But with night still yet to fall over Mantle, it was still several hours before they could begin to set their plan into motion. 

So, with time to burn, Ruby had given them strict instructions--rest up, recharge, and recenter--and only _then_ would they head out. 

As far as leaderly threats from Ruby went, it was rather toothless, considering the limited window of time they'd have to infiltrate the SDC. Now that Weiss was back in the warm apartment, with nothing left to focus on and nothing left to distract her, she could feel her lack of sleep begin to blur the edge of her concentration.

For her part, Blake had yawned widely and commandeered the shower without so much as a word, and Yang had retreated to the bedroom for an extra hour or two of sleep. Before Weiss could seriously entertain the thought of following Yang's lead, Ruby sank down on the couch next to her, already pulling on her heavy boots. 

Still in the process of checking her scroll for messages, Weiss paused, listening to the pull of leather straps and buckles, the sound striking in the quiet apartment. Abruptly, she realised that for the first time in over a day, she and Ruby were alone. 

"Going somewhere?" Weiss ventured, uncomfortable with the silence between them. She only dared shoot Ruby a fleeting, sidelong glance, before returning to the dubious safety of her scroll. Despite the way she pretended to be preoccupied with months-old emails, her attention was on one thing alone--Ruby. 

Ruby hesitated with one of the buckles on her boots, and if Weiss hadn't been paying such close attention, she wouldn't have caught the sound of Ruby's quiet, steadying inhale. 

"Well, I was hoping..." Ruby trailed off. Despite the way Weiss stared through the old email, she could practically feel the physical weight of Ruby's gaze. " _We_ could. Go somewhere together, I mean." 

Reluctant, her jaw clenching tight, Weiss finally looked back to Ruby, a thousand excuses flickering through her head--only to find every one of them silenced by the quiet steadiness in Ruby's expression, the levelness to her silver, searching gaze. 

Weiss' mouth suddenly felt impossibly dry, and the very idea of refusing such a mild request seemed entirely beyond her. 

This--this was Ruby at her most dangerous to Weiss. Not pouting, not dorkishly charming or goofily sweet, and not Weiss' first and dearest friend. This was Ruby Rose, her _leader,_ and the one Weiss had chosen to follow through hell and back. 

In these moments, she'd long ago realised, there was very little she could deny Ruby. 

"Of course," Weiss found herself saying, even as her stomach twisted in on itself. She tucked her scroll away in her pocket, her mind a whirlwind of worry and dread--but really, she'd known all along such a moment would be coming. It had just been a matter of _when._

Ruby nodded, hugging her knee to her chest, her silver eyes still steady as she watched Weiss pull her leather gloves back on with a robotic, absent efficiency. 

Draping her dark scarf about her shoulders, Weiss finally rose to her feet. When her leader didn't move along with her, Weiss felt herself hesitate, felt her aura prickle in reactive instinct, and she looked back over her shoulder. 

Ruby was still watching her, steady and curious. Once again, the feeling even more powerful than ever before, Weiss was gripped by the cold, confronting certainty that Ruby was-- _solving her._ That she was finally looking beyond the petty distractions and deflections, every redirection and misrepresentation Weiss both knowingly and absently called upon to protect herself, and that was...

 _Terrifying._ Weiss resettled her shoulders, trying to remember how to steel them despite her bone-deep exhaustion. She'd faced far worse than Ruby's undivided attention, this past year. Investigators, auditors, executives, specialists... She could survive _this._

The afternoon sun was low in the sky when she and Ruby finally emerged from the apartment, and Weiss paused, squinting irritably. The sky was mostly clear now, the patchy clouds swept away by the strength of the wind. Weiss felt herself shiver, and absently she turned up her collar against the next freezing gust. 

Catching her movement, Ruby looked back over her shoulder, before nodding in the direction of what looked to be an abandoned apartment complex down the block. Weiss' mouth flattened, but she couldn't find it in herself to formulate a proper protest as she followed Ruby's lead, the pair of them eventually scaling the rusting fire escape somehow still bolted to the outside of the structure. 

The complex was tall, towering over so many of the other residential blocks in the area, and it looked as though a large Dust explosion had practically gutted the interior. How the building still stood was a mystery to Weiss, but as they scaled the last of the rusting stairs and arrived at the very top, she--

Unexpectedly, Weiss found herself appreciating the view. From such a height, a vast chunk of Mantle stretched out before her--the clocktower looming above the winding streets, the uninspired architecture of the Mantle Central Station, and beyond all of that, the snarl of the Mantle fence and the mountains, all of it hazy in the distance. 

Perhaps, when night fell, they might be able to see the ethereal glow from Atlas, but this was still...

"You've always had quite the knack for views," Weiss observed, entirely honest, and she turned back to where Ruby lingered by the fire escape. 

She looked nervous, and Weiss felt a sympathetic echo of it strike up in her own stomach. It was difficult not to dwell on the flash of intense hurt in Ruby's eyes from earlier, both before and after Weiss had treated her hand. 

_You owe Ruby both an apology and an explanation for being such an asshole,_ Blake had told her, and perhaps she'd been correct. Whatever Ruby had to say, Weiss could concede she likely deserved to hear it--every accusation, every demand, every sharp word. 

Acknowledging that hardly put Weiss any more at ease, and she felt her hands slowly curl into fists at her side, anxious and defensive and reflexively harsh. She wasn't good at-- _this._ For Ruby, however, she'd try. 

"I kinda figured it might be nice to get out of the apartment," Ruby finally said, rubbing at the back of her neck with an uneasy smile. 

"So the other two can't listen in on our argument?" Weiss asked. She'd intended it to be a joke, for all that it landed between them with an edge. 

Ruby's expression grew worried, her gaze flickering up and down Weiss. "Is yelling at me a part of your plan?"

Weiss flinched, crossing her arms and looking away. Ruby's boots scuffed, heavy on the cement as she approached, and Weiss couldn't help herself, short and sharp as she snapped back, "Is it part of yours?"

"Weiss--" Ruby stopped, close but not uncomfortably so, but Weiss' gut wrenched in volatile reaction at the sudden rawness in her partner's voice. "I'm not--I didn't bring you up here to--"

Weiss looked back to Ruby at the hesitation, watching Ruby bite down on her lower lip and close her eyes. _Undeserving targets,_ Weiss remembered, and with an effort, she released the breath she'd been holding. 

"Let me start again, okay? I wanted to talk to you, Weiss." Ruby opened her eyes then, meeting Weiss' own squarely. "Just you and me, because we really, really need to figure all this out."

Again, Weiss wondered if she'd miscalculated. Ruby was far more clever than she often gave herself credit for. While she didn't have the years of obsessively learned detail Weiss often relied upon, her instincts were second to none, and the connections and links she could make--they made her wholly unpredictable in the most dangerous way. 

Perhaps she was wrong, Weiss realised with a sinking sensation in her stomach, cold sweat prickling at the back of her neck. Perhaps she wouldn't survive this confrontation after all. 

It had been a relief to come clean with Blake, and when all was said and done, Weiss had been thankful that Blake had pushed where Ruby hadn't dared to. The hurt in Ruby's eyes flashed to mind again--the uncertainty, the anger, the awkwardness. Ruby giving that ground had hurt them, and Weiss' reflexive lies of omission had taken an even greater toll. 

She could recognise that, now. 

"I agree," Weiss said finally, exhaling softly and looking away from Ruby. She wished she could say more, but honestly? She didn't know what else there was to say. 

"I'm really glad," Ruby replied, and she was silent for a long moment. The wind picked up around them, stirring the rotten leaves caught in the debris, sending the ragged edge of Ruby's cloak whipping. "Weiss, how _are_ you?"

The question took Weiss by surprise--it was hardly the direction she'd expected the confrontation to take. Angry demands for the truth, she could and _would_ handle. The genuine concern in Ruby's voice, however, was not something she'd prepared herself for. 

Weiss stared at her, floundering. She couldn't seem to scramble fast enough to master her emotions, to figure out an answer--a lie, because the truth was she was _so close to breaking_ \--

Ruby's gaze was steady, seeming to read everything in Weiss' expression. She tilted her head, her voice gentle as she said, "Weiss. How are you, _really_?"

Weiss' jaw clenched, and she almost, _almost_ wanted to get angry with Ruby for that--and god, it would be so much easier. To bristle and march off this godforsaken roof, to leave the uncomfortable conversation and assessing silver gaze behind. And in doing so, she'd consign her relationship with Ruby to ruin.

Blake was right, she understood it with a sick certainty--turning her back on her team would be exactly what her father would want. 

"I don't even know how to answer that, Ruby," Weiss finally told her, flat and weary, because that was the truth of it. 

"I get it. Big question, I guess." Ruby nodded, sharp and shaky, for all that her gaze was steady as she looked Weiss up and down. "You... look really tired. Like you haven't slept."

"Not inaccurate," Weiss conceded, and she crossed her arms, shivering. 

"I thought so." Ruby was silent for a long moment, watching her, and Weiss could practically see the gears in her head turning as she considered her approach. "You haven't really been sleeping much at all, lately. Seems like you've got a lot on your mind. You've been... distant, I guess. Like you aren't really here."

Unsure of the point Ruby was making, Weiss held her silence. 

"Last night, I guess I started to wonder if you really wanted to be--here, I mean. With us." Ruby exhaled then, quiet and reluctant, dropping her gaze from Weiss'. Her voice was subdued when she continued, "It's okay if you don't. It's okay if you need to be somewhere else."

"Ruby..." Weiss' heart clenched in her chest. With everything else happening in her life, Team RWBY was a refuge. She'd never intended to cause Ruby to doubt that--to doubt their partnership, either. She swallowed, her throat oddly tight as she tried, "I do want to be here. More than anything, this is where I want to be."

Ruby's gaze was pained. "Then why does that feel like a lie?"

"It's not a lie!" Weiss snapped, immediately bristling at the suggestion that it was, but as Ruby continued to watch her, unflinching, she felt herself relent. Her mouth flattening in frustration, she said, "Though... I suppose I can see why it might seem like one."

Ruby nodded, crossing her arms against her chest as she looked out over Mantle. 

"Weiss, I'm worried about you. Really, _really_ worried." Ruby took a breath, her next words coming fast, hurting, _desperate_ , as though if she talked fast enough Weiss wouldn't hear the tremble in them. "Weiss, I don't know what to do! You don't seem to want to talk to me about anything anymore, you spend all this time thinking about something _else_ you refuse to tell me about, and then--"

"Ruby--" Weiss tried, because god she had always been so _weak_ to Ruby, but she didn't get the chance as Ruby threw out a hand, effectively cutting her off. 

"No. Please, let me talk, Weiss." Ruby lowered her hand, swallowing convulsively. That low note of strain in her voice was back, sharper than ever before as she forced out, "Please let me talk, or I'm not gonna be brave enough to finish." 

Weiss stared at Ruby, her heart in her throat, her mind working. Ruby was the bravest person she knew--what was so terrifying that _Ruby_ would find herself afraid? Unbidden, the memory of her partner recoiling from the ichor flashed to mind. 

"Okay," Weiss told her after a long moment, nodding just the once. 

Ruby inhaled, clearly struggling with herself before finally, she said, "Weiss, what you did last night--it sucked."

Weiss looked away, crossing her arms against her chest. "I know."

"I don't... really think you do. I don't really think you get what happened. Last night. For me." Ruby's words were reluctant and halting, and she slowly walked toward the edge of the building. Weiss watched her sit, a cross-legged sprawl, staring into the horizon. 

Ruby's lips were flat, her expression pained, her words hoarse and raw as she continued, "And I think a bit of where we are... it's my fault, too. Because I haven't really been all that truthful with you, either. I guess you could even say I've been hiding things from you, even though it didn't feel like it at the time."

Weiss approached slowly, and after a heartbeat of consideration, took the spot on the edge next to Ruby, her legs dangling freely, their shoulders almost touching. She leaned back on an arm, watching the way the golden afternoon sunlight lit up Ruby's face, how it threw the crimson highlights in her hair into stark relief. She waited. 

"I want us to be honest with each other, like we used to be. I want us to be able to talk." Ruby hugged her knee to her chest, resting her chin on top of it as she looked back to Weiss. "But before we can do that, we've gotta clear some of the air, or the poison's just gonna keep twisting us up."

"Ruby." Weiss swallowed then, nodding. Long ago, she'd promised herself that she'd always be there for Ruby, no matter what--because her partner was the best thing in her life, and accordingly deserved her best effort. Try harder, she'd told herself. She had to live up to that promise. "Whatever you have to say... I'm listening."

Ruby flashed her a quiet, relieved attempt at a smile, but as she looked out over Mantle's streets, it faded. 

"Last night, when you didn't come back..." Ruby hesitated, and Weiss watched her hands slowly curl into fists so tight the leather creaked. "I started to freak out, because I figured, the only thing that would stop you from coming home or answering my texts or _anything_ would be if you were _dead_ , Weiss."

The admission was like a body blow, and Weiss' breath froze in her chest. She'd heard it from Blake, but she'd dismissed it as nothing more than an exaggeration, an attempt make her guilty. There was no second-guessing the genuine fear in Ruby's eyes now. 

"That worry started doing things to my head. Really, really bad things." Ruby laughed then, weak and weary. "I still have nightmares about the last time I was too late. Just a few seconds, but it made the world of difference."

Weiss closed her eyes, just for a moment. She'd been such an _idiot._ "Pyrrha." 

Ruby nodded, her silver eyes distant, and she seemed glad she didn't need to explain that line of thought in any more detail. "I was so sure something terrible had happened to you, and if it did... that it would be all my fault." 

Weiss wet her lips, trying to redirect the path of Ruby's thoughts as she said, "But I'm fine. Ruby--"

"I didn't _know_ that, Weiss!" Ruby burst out, her gaze refocusing on Weiss with a fierce intensity, the heat behind her gaze enough to silence every protest. Ruby blinked then, as if surprised by her own reaction, before she scrubbed furiously at her face with the back of her hand. "You could have been just like _Lawson!_ Dead and _tortured_ and full of--of that ichor. _Her_ ichor."

 _Salem._ A chill ran down Weiss' spine, and she made the connection. She understood exactly what the conversation was, now. What Ruby was telling her. What Ruby was trusting her with. 

"Weiss, I panicked." Ruby's voice was raw and strained, and she dragged her fingers through her hair in restless agitation. "That's the only way I can describe what happens sometimes. All I could think about was finding you, making sure you were okay because you're my partner and my best friend and--and I care about you. So much that I don't know what I'd do if I lost you, too." 

Weiss felt ill. Last night, her choice had been one of petty selfishness. She'd not come home out of fear of hurting Ruby, that much was true, but ignoring her messages? Leaving her to wonder, to suffer? That had been pure _spite_ , as Weiss had scrambled to control what little was left to her. 

She'd lashed out at the ones she loved, using their care for her against them, brimming with impotent rage that could go nowhere! The cold realisation was like a knife in her heart, twisting and sharp. She really was her father's daughter in that regard. 

"Ruby--I--" Weiss tried, before falling silent, her words failing her. 

"And then I figured out you'd been ignoring me all along. You weren't dead, you weren't even in trouble--you just didn't want to talk to me about what was going on!" Ruby looked at her, and Weiss felt a spike of alarm at the anguish in her eyes, the pained twist of her lips. "And I couldn't help but ask myself why. Why you don't want to talk to me. Why you always take everything on your own shoulders, my burdens and yours!"

"You shouldn't need to deal with my problems!" Weiss pressed the heel of her palm to her temple, trying to figure out a way to get ahead of all this, to make it better. "Ruby, my life is a mess--"

"Then _tell me_ about it." Ruby's voice was harsh and pleading, her breath coming hard and fast as she turned more fully toward Weiss. "Talk to me about what's up with you! We're _partners_ , Weiss! I want you to trust me. Just the way I'm gonna trust you."

Weiss looked to her partner then, anxiety worming its way up in her chest. "Ruby?"

Ruby shifted, hugging her knee even closer to her body, her gloved fingers twisting in fur-lined leggings. Her voice was quiet as she admitted, "I've been so scared of talking about this. Even just saying this much makes me want to run away, pretend nothing happened."

"Fake a smile," Weiss replied, before she could help herself. 

"Yeah," Ruby said, the strained ghost of a laugh on her lips as she cast Weiss a fond, exasperated look. "Guess we both know a lot about that, huh?"

Weiss drew a short, steadying breath, trying to reconcile her perspective with what Ruby was saying--and what she was going to say. Gods, she'd never wanted _that_ for Ruby, for their friendship to ring so false, and yet somehow, she'd created an environment where Ruby believed she had to keep up the very same act Weiss herself had been trapped in for years. For what? For _who_? 

Perhaps the blame wasn't Weiss' alone, but she should have known her partner better. She should have _been_ better, and now... 

"Go on, then. The longer you dwell, the harder it becomes to talk, and--" Weiss hesitated, looking to Ruby. "You're entirely right. We need to talk."

"Right." Ruby's smile was crooked, her shoulder brushing against Weiss' just for a moment. "Keeping me on track. You always did say you were gonna be the best teammate ever."

"Not that I've shown it lately," Weiss replied, bitter with self-recrimination. She looked out toward Mantle, before carefully nudging Ruby in the side with her elbow. "Stop procrastinating."

Ruby snorted beneath her breath, and this time, her shoulder remained against Weiss'. 

"My problems... they didn't start with Salem's defeat. I've always had problems keeping things inside, I guess. Internalising things. That's how Yang puts it, which I guess is something she learned from dad's struggles. And her own." Ruby's eyes were distant when Weiss looked back to her, her expression almost wistful. "When Summer died, I never really got over it, even though it happened when I was really young."

"That much I've known for a long time," Weiss pointed out, and Ruby nodded. 

"We've talked a bit about my mom before. We've also talked about how things were for me, after Beacon's fall. The nightmares. Penny. Pyrrha." 

"The fall was not your fault, Ruby," Weiss told her, frowning. "Nor was Penny. And if you're to blame for Pyrrha, then so am I."

"The only one to blame for Pyrrha's death is Cinder," Ruby said, a recited quality to the words--as though she'd spoken them so many times they ceased to hold real meaning. She looked down over Mantle, her eyes sad. "But I'll always wonder what would have happened, had I been just a little faster."

"You'll drive yourself crazy with thoughts like that."

Ruby made a sound of agreement, low in her throat. "In a way... maybe I already have."

Weiss looked at Ruby in askance, and in that moment, it felt like they both lingered on the precipice. But she couldn't push this--Ruby was the only one who could take the final step. 

"In those hours after I defeated Salem... I wasn't... okay." 

"I remember."

The final moments of the Salem Crisis were mostly a blur for Weiss, a chaotic snarl of blood and pain and silver fire. She'd only come to after the last blow had been dealt and Salem's throne room had caved in on itself. Despite the way her head had spun, she'd immediately sprung to action to help Yang dig Ruby out from the rubble and ruin. 

She remembered Yang pulling Ruby out at the same time Weiss and Blake had found Crescent Rose, still locked in its sword morph, and she remembered Ruby recoiling at the sight of her beloved weapon. Only when Weiss and Blake had collapsed the weapon down had she relaxed. That part was vivid--and it had remained with Weiss in the long months since. 

Together, Team RWBY had taken Ruby back to the front, to where Winter and Ironwood and the rest of Qrow's band of mismatched would-be heroes had waited. While there had been a victory, Weiss remembered that it hadn't felt like one. Ruby hadn't said a word, her expression one of listless horror, and finally, she and Blake had left Yang and Qrow to care for Ruby as they'd rested. 

When Weiss had finally awoken some hours later, Ruby and Yang were gone. 

"You said your problems didn't start with Salem's defeat." Weiss swallowed, nudging Ruby with her shoulder. "It sounds like they got far worse from that point, though."

"It took me months to... understand myself again." Ruby's voice was soft, almost reluctant, her fingers twisting again in her leggings. "I didn't feel like _me."_

"What did you feel like?"

Ruby was silent as she processed it, resting her cheek against the top of her knee. 

"For a while, I wondered if it was something Salem had done to me, right before she died. But of course it wasn't, it's not that easy." Her expression flickered, equal parts pain and doubt. "This... this came from me, and I think that's the worst part. Even long after, I would just suddenly feel it, like she was out there, just waiting for me to lower my guard so she could hurt the ones I love! And I'd freeze. I'd panic. Just--just like last night."

 _And last night was my fault._ Weiss felt gutted, but she nodded. "I understand."

Ruby looked across at Weiss for a long, tense moment, and it was only then that Weiss realised how sharp and shallow Ruby's breaths had become. 

Concern welled up in her chest, and frowning, Weiss asked, "Ruby?"

"Talking about this isn't... fun." Ruby's jaw clenched, and she took a deep, shuddering breath. "But there's more. I need to say this. I need to, Weiss."

And Ruby needed Weiss to listen. At Ruby's uncertain look, Weiss found herself nodding. 

"I think, part of the mess in my head is down to how it all ended."

Weiss looked at her in surprise. _The ending_ of the Salem conflict was something she'd never been privy to. The mission had been classified almost immediately upon their return, and even after the CCT had been restored, it had never felt like her _right_ to ask. 

Now, it seemed like Ruby was requesting that she ask the question. And Weiss would never shy away--if that was what Ruby wished of her. 

After a long moment, she exhaled. "How did it end?"

"I won. But that's the best thing I can say about it." Ruby's smile was a sickly thing, and as Weiss watched her, it faded away. Her silver eyes were locked on the horizon as she asked, "Do you remember much about the actual fight?"

"We fought in a pocket dimension." Weiss lifted a hand, hesitating as she tried to reorder her thoughts. It was not an easy fight to understand. "Salem kept changing the laws of the universe on us, drawing her power from the circle of relics. Blake and I managed to destroy the glyph array she'd set up--the four point cascading collapse of that array nearly killed me, I might add, and then I took a blow to the head." 

"You made her really mad by doing that. And made me really happy. That's still one of the coolest things I've ever seen you do." Ruby's smile was more genuine, and she bumped her shoulder against Weiss'. "Blake went down soon after, so it was just me and Yang, up against a witch with the power of the brother gods. And Yang could barely stay conscious, let alone fight." 

Ruby's smile faded, and she shifted, both of her legs dangling over the edge of the building. 

"She started talking in my head, Weiss." Ruby's voice was quiet and reluctant. "About how she was going to keep me alive, just so I could watch the world burn with her. She'd kill Oscar, she'd kill Qrow, and as for Team RWBY--"

With a jolt, Weiss caught the tremble in Ruby's lower lip, caught between her teeth. 

"She was going to take her time with _my team,_ all because they were mine. Witches like her, they feed off of negative emotions just the way Grimm do, and she said--" Ruby bared her teeth then, feral and savage, and Weiss realised that she'd never seen her partner so furious. "Torturing Team RWBY--my pain would last her a hundred years. And she showed me. In my head." 

Weiss' breath froze in her throat. 

"I _snapped_. Something really important in my head broke that day and I--" Ruby hesitated, her anger stalling as she looked to Weiss. "Do you know why my uncle fights with a sword, sometimes?"

"No."

"A scythe is great for monsters, but against humans, it's usually too large. A sword doesn't have that problem--so the sword is for humans. Crescent Rose's sword form was built by me and Qrow, just for Salem, and I decided that if she wanted a fight, I'd give her a real fight, and I--I overwhelmed her. Somehow, I was--I was--"

As Ruby struggled, Weiss quietly supplied, "Silver eyes?"

"It was worse than that. Far, far worse. Yang berserks sometimes. But you knew that." Ruby drew a sharp, shuddery breath, her lips tightening in shame. "She thinks what I did that day was like that--but it _wasn't,_ and I've never had the guts to tell her the truth. When I fought Salem, when I snapped... I was in total control, the whole time. I was angry.

"And I wanted to _play_ with her. Just the way she played with us. Break her, just the way she tried to break me. I was going to, I was going to hunt her until she was beaten and terrified--but then, she messed up. My sword went through her chest, and Weiss... I was _disappointed_ when I killed her." Ruby's voice broke then, and she hugged herself, seeming to collapse in on herself as the tears began in her eyes. "It wasn't just that I believed she deserved to die. She deserved it and it had to be done. But in those final moments, I wanted her to suffer. For everything she's done, everyone she's hurt, everyone she's killed... I wanted her to feel that pain tenfold!

"But it was quick. She didn't suffer, and I've spent the past year trying to figure out what sort of person I am, to wish it _had_ been different!"

Weiss stared at her. "Ruby..."

"It wasn't a battle of good and evil, Weiss. In those last few moments, it was a battle of monsters with no other goal than to see one another suffer, and I prevailed because I was the _bigger monster."_

It was completely at odds with Ruby's very nature. Ruby, who drew her strength from kindness. Ruby, who saw the good in everything. But that wasn't all she was, she was far more complex than that, and she was hurting _now._ Weiss opened her mouth to say something, anything, but Ruby flinched away. 

" _Don't,_ " Ruby snarled, scrubbing at her eyes with the back of her gloves. "Please, don't _look_ at me like that." 

"Like my best friend isn't flaying herself alive for the very same thing I felt?" Weiss inhaled, and there was steel to her voice as she said, "You say you wanted to hurt her? Well, so did I."

Ruby froze, staring at Weiss, tears spilling freely down her cheeks. 

"Salem hurt a lot of people. She killed friends, she killed family, and you had a right to feel angry." Weiss wet her lips, her mind working. Commiserations on just how much she'd also hated Salem weren't going to help Ruby--so she had to step up. _Try harder_ , she repeated. "No matter what you might have believed you wanted in the heat of the moment, you didn't play with her. You didn't torture her."

"I wanted to!" Ruby snapped, her teeth baring--equal parts anger and self-loathing. "And Weiss, I _would_ have."

"If you'd had the will to do it, you would never have killed her so easily!" Weiss hesitated, shaking her head. She looked out over Mantle, her voice softening as she said, "Ruby. I am not a good person. Not like--not like you."

"Weiss?"

"I am not looking for pity or sympathy here, Ruby--but the truth is, I was raised very differently to you. I have my father's words drilled into my head so deeply they are so often the first thing I think of. Cruelty. Judgement. Anger. Condescension." Weiss looked back to Ruby, leaning her weight back on one arm. It was not something she shared with-- _anyone._ But for Ruby, she'd give that quiet reality to her, if only it would help her. "They are my first impulse, and I've fought for so long to change that. But it's not the reactionary first thought that defines who I am, Ruby. It's what I think next.

"You wanted to hurt her, and badly. You had those thoughts, nothing changes that and there is no use shying away from them." Weiss nodded to herself, her eyes on Ruby's, steady and reassuring. "But you had those thoughts, and then you felt horror. Whatever you think of yourself, Ruby, I will never believe you a monster. And trust me when I say this--I know monsters."

Ruby stared at her, her lower lip trembling, and she sucked in a deep, shuddery breath--again and again, until Weiss finally realised she was sobbing. Without hesitation, she wrapped her arm around Ruby's shoulders, drawing her into a tight, crushing hug. Ruby's hand reached up, curling desperately in her scarf, in her lapels, her face buried against Weiss' shoulder as she cried. 

It was the first real hug Weiss had had in the better part of a year, and awkward, she wasn't quite certain what she was supposed to do. Impulsively, she wrapped her other arm about Ruby's waist, rubbing at the small of her back, running her fingers through Ruby's hair for some indeterminate amount of time--until Ruby had finally gone quiet. 

"I'm sorry." Weiss' voice was soft. "For putting you through everything. I never really wanted you to worry."

Ruby looked exhausted as she pulled away, and she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand as she asked, "But... can you at least tell me why? What happened, last night?"

Weiss' breath froze in her throat. Ruby had opened up to her, and god she was glad she'd been able to be there for her... but her own circumstances hadn't changed. The risk was still far too great, no matter how Blake's voice of reason floated, disjointed in her head. 

Winter's task was too important--and Whitley was right. It felt like the utmost cruelty to be forced to choose between her sister and her partner, and yet here she was. 

"I can't."

"'Schnee family business'," Ruby said, her voice tight with agonised frustration as she took another deep, shuddering breath, withdrawing from Weiss even further. "Always a _secret_."

"Ruby." Weiss hesitated, reeling from the bitterness in her partner's words. "Ruby, I can't--"

"Why not? Is it because you don't think you can trust me? Is it because you think I can't handle the truth?" Ruby's anger changed, doubt and self-recrimination morphing it into something horrifying and toxic before Weiss' very eyes. "That I'm just gonna break in half the moment I see the reality of the world?"

Weiss reached out, not sure what she was trying to do--only _something._ "No, that's not--it's not entirely it--"

"I don't understand what your dad has got on you!" Ruby jerked away from Weiss' hand. "Or what you think you owe him! If you're disowned, can't you just tell him to leave you alone?!"

"It's--it's not that simple." Weiss tried to meet Ruby's eyes, her lips flattening as Ruby refused to look at her. Frustrated and afraid of what she'd sparked in her partner, she snapped, "It's not about being _obligated_ to him!"

Ruby's gaze was fierce and defiant when she met Weiss'. "Then what's it about, Weiss?"

"Consequence." The word fell heavily between them, before Weiss could think to hold it back. She exhaled, feeling sweat prickle on the back of her neck. God, she was so tired, and she pressed the heel of her palm to her temple, desperately scrambling to galvanise her thoughts. "For me. For him. Real lives, at risk, if I don't keep my mouth shut so he doesn't somehow hear about--"

"About _what?_ " Ruby demanded, and unbelieving, she added, "Is he threatening to kill people to make you keep this secret?"

Weiss scowled at her, her heart pounding in her ears, thundering in her chest until she felt dizzy with it. "Nothing so _pedestrian_."

"Then why are lives at risk?" Ruby's lips twisted, hurt and angry. Her words somehow pried beneath Weiss' skin, hooking deep into her flesh. "What does that even _mean?_ "

Ruby didn't give a damn what these secrets were doing to Weiss, how close she was to crumbling. Weiss felt it, sharp in her chest, something tight and fearful and desperate clawing at her insides. She was unravelling, she realised, just like she had at the warehouse. Between the lack of sleep and Blake and everything Ruby told her, she was at her wit's end, her reserves finally tapped dry. 

And nobody, not _one_ person, seemed to give a damn what she wanted! Whitley and Jacques and Winter and Blake and _Ruby_ \--

"There are things going on that I cannot talk to you about, Ruby! Things that will end very badly if the wrong people hear about them, and I've already learned how closely I'm being watched!"

Ruby stared at Weiss, suddenly wavering, her silver eyes confused. "You're... being watched?"

"Yes." The word hissed out between Weiss' teeth, for all that it killed her to concede it. Grief boiled up, hot in her chest, and she swallowed convulsively. "Ruby, I trust you. I'd trust you with my _life,_ but this is bigger than the both of us and no matter how much it kills me inside to do, I must keep my silence for the safety of others! They are depending on me!" 

Ruby's gaze narrowed, and Weiss could have kicked herself. Of course she understood _who_ it was about. "I'm not afraid of him, Weiss."

"And that's a mistake I won't _let_ you make," Weiss told her, her jaw clenching so tightly it ached. "He's terrifying."

"He's a businessman, not a witch." Ruby's voice was flat and stubborn. "How bad could he be?"

"I asked myself that exact question a year ago." Weiss tried to inhale, shallow and sharp, but god she couldn't seem to _breathe._ Her thoughts were fraying again, and she couldn't keep the lid on herself long enough to clamp down on the words suddenly bubbling past her lips. "I misjudged him so badly. You think you're a monster? I look at him and I've seen the very worst of humanity. The man has no soul and--"

Ruby's eyes went wide, and Weiss couldn't master her thoughts, her emotions, all of them blurring together into a desperate tidal wave that was going to drown her this time. She'd been barely treading water for months, and now--

"He's a monster," Weiss told Ruby, rasping from between clenched teeth, blinking back hot, desperate tears. "If anyone is a monster, it's him and _not you._ Ruby, I'm sorry I lied to you yesterday, but I can't, I want to but I _can't_ \--"

The dizzying smell of roses enveloped her, Ruby's hug crushing about her shoulders and ribs. Weiss felt herself tremble on the brink, her face pressed into the rough red fabric of Ruby's hood, before she reached up and twisted her fingers in it. God, she should be ashamed of how big a mess she was--one hug and she was practically starving for the next-- 

"I'll trust you," Ruby murmured, holding her close in the impossibly warm embrace. Weiss felt her draw a long, unsteady breath. "But you've got to be more honest with how you're coping, and whatever you can tell, when you're able to, you need to. If you say people are gonna get hurt... I'm not gonna make you choose. 

"But I'm not gonna let you do it alone. I'm here for you, and Yang, and Blake. We're your family, not _him_ , and we can face whatever this really is--but we gotta do it together." 

Weiss pulled back, breathing hard but refusing to consign herself to tears. But gods, she didn't even know how to begin to process that level of blunt affection. Knowing she had to say something, she forced out, "I suppose."

Ruby's eyebrows rose, and she reached out, her hand gentle as she pressed it to the side of Weiss' neck, her thumb swiping at the line of her jaw. "You suppose you'll be more open?"

"Yes." Weiss nodded, and for all the way her half-thawed, stilted heart seized up in her chest at the look in Ruby's eyes, she had to concede the other part, too. "And I suppose... Team RWBY really is my family. We've just never really said it aloud."

Ruby's smile was small, but it was heartfelt. "Is it wrong?"

"Not even a little."

Ruby withdrew her hand, letting it fall to her lap as she shifted to face Weiss fully, one leg tucked beneath her weight. 

"I was serious... when I asked you yesterday." Ruby paused, her voice soft and full of earnest feeling. "If you'd come away with me and Yang and Blake after this contract is done. Away from him, so he can't just... hurt you any more. So we can figure things out for ourselves."

Just like yesterday, it sounded wonderful--but not practical in the slightest. There was no feasible end to Weiss' fight with her father that resulted in her own happiness, and in less than three days time, she could be on her way to a white collar prison for crimes she'd not committed. 

_Consequence_ , she'd told Ruby. She'd be damned if she let him get away with everything. 

"I really wish I could," Weiss said finally, wistful, and when she looked back to Ruby, her smile had faded. 

"You know," Ruby ventured, gesturing out to where the sun was beginning to dip low on the horizon. "I'm not really sure I want to go back. Not just yet. Don't... suppose you want to stay and watch the sunset?"

Weiss looked at Ruby again, considering. With her red eyes and shaky smile, with too many demons and too many worries... they matched entirely too much. In that moment, Weiss was certain she could not have loved her partner any more than she already did. 

And she really, really didn't want to go back, either. 

"I'd love to." Weiss drew a deep breath, daring to allow herself the momentary weakness of leaning her shoulder against Ruby, letting her partner steady her with a hand. All of a sudden, she felt incredibly tired. "You're a good partner, Ruby." 

Ruby laughed softly, tugging Weiss more securely into her side. "What can I say? I learned from the best."

Weiss wasn't quite sure she deserved that, but she didn't argue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And at last, the interpersonal trainwreck arc has concluded and for my part, I'm very glad it has. Secrets and internal angst are all very well and realistic for the situation, but things between Weiss and Ruby _must_ change. Now, they're giving themselves the best shot to do so.
> 
> Even if Weiss still cannot bring the full situation to the table yet (though this is very much on the horizon, for those impatient ones among you) this is the most honest she has been. Ruby now has some idea of the stakes at play and a very good idea of who it concerns. 
> 
> I don't normally do the whole lengthy author's note outside of some droll commentary, since I prefer to let the work stand for itself, but this whole arc has been incredibly difficult to write. This is the part of the fic where I'd normally get scared of the level of work required and stall out. And god, it has been _so_ difficult to keep going through the bleakness. 
> 
> But this is a turning point. This is a point of progress. 
> 
> From here, we're moving into the larger external plot, with all the internal angst taking a backseat. Not to say that they will not be in play and won't affect the plot - they just won't be the exclusive focus. We've got a serial killer Grimm to catch, and Mantle is a dreadfully interesting place. As for the inhabitants... stay tuned.
> 
> Thanks for everyone who has commented, reblogged and liked and otherwise just messaged me with support! I love and appreciate you all!


	11. Pulling the Thread

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the hours before their covert operation at the Mantle SDC depot, Team RWBY takes advantage of a little downtime.

By the time Ruby and Weiss finally made it back to the apartment, the nighttime chill had long since settled into Ruby's bones, and the living room seemed practically toasty in comparison. Despite the lingering trace scent of dampness and mouldering plaster, courtesy of yesterday's storm, Ruby couldn't help but breath a deep a sigh of relief, tugging her hands free of her gloves and rubbing them together to work some warmth back into her joints. 

Just a half a pace behind her, Weiss let the door click shut, suddenly so close Ruby barely resisted the temptation to reach out and leech her warmth again. She'd been quiet since their conversation atop the ruined apartment complex, and Ruby could only guess that she was processing, over-analysing things from every possible angle. After all, Weiss _would_ always be Weiss--but watching the brilliant reds fade into murky twilight, Ruby had rather thought the silence between them hadn't been awkward at all. It had just felt companionable, and for once in her life Ruby had been content to allow it.

The apartment was quiet, a striking contrast to all the energy and heat of the arguments Team RWBY had made while cobbling together their SDC infiltration plan. Their notes and Weiss' rough sketches of what to expect of the warehouse's interior were still heaped all over the kitchen table, the rumpled sheets of taped-together paper spilling over the edge and halfway to the floor. 

It felt unsettlingly normal, as though barely half an hour gone Ruby hadn't been confessing her darkest moments. Even now, a part of her kept waiting for the suckerpunch, a thread of doubt still trying to convince her it was all too good to be true. 

Weirdness or not, Ruby's conversation with Weiss had been terrifyingly real. Yang had been right, though. She usually was. 

As much as Ruby had trusted Weiss, exposing that side of herself, talking about her worst, most personal fears--it had demanded a leap of faith she hadn't been sure she'd survive. Each word had left her bleeding, and as she'd struggled, she'd started to wonder that maybe just giving her private horrors voice would undo her, that it would kick her back down into the abyss once and for all.

In the end, she hadn't broken in the way she'd feared. She'd reached out, and Weiss had reached back. She'd argued with the dark, insistent guilt twisting through Ruby's mind, even offering something of herself in return. 

It was too easy to believe things would change with a talk alone, but here and now, Ruby couldn't deny she felt a cathartic, exhausted sense of peace. 

"Welcome back," Blake said, as Ruby tossed her gloves down onto the kitchen table. She was curled up on the couch with a book, tucked just out of sight, the space heater turned toward her and her long, damp hair twisted back in a towel. "I had been wondering if I'd need to play truancy officer again."

"I figured you'd be in the shower for at least another hour, Blake. Don't you have our entire supply of hot water to use all on your own?" Weiss asked, an irritable edge to her tone. She stepped around Ruby, shrugging free of her coat and scarf and hanging them on the back of one of the chairs.

Blake didn't lift her gaze or rise to the bait, even if she hummed beneath her breath, considering. "This book is interesting, so I suppose I had proper motivation--for once." 

"So bribery, then? I'll note it for next time," Weiss replied, but for all her grumbling, Ruby wondered if the curl of her lips was amused more than sour. "If you have used all the hot water, however, consider this my declaration of war."

Leaning the small of her back against the kitchen bench, Ruby held her silence, tracking Weiss' movements as she ducked into their bedroom. Then again, if Weiss did get lumped with a cold shower... Ruby winced. 

Despite her misgivings in getting involved with the all-too typical argument, she cast Blake a narrow look. "We... aren't actually out of hot water, are we?"

Blake's only response was a worrying, non-committal sound, but when Ruby looked back to where Weiss continued to sort through the bags still left at the foot of their bed, her concern began to fade into a contented, weary buzz. 

Weiss had felt incredibly good, tucked into her side while they'd watched the sunset, the distinctive scent of perfume and Dust easing the deep snarl of tension and doubt in Ruby's chest. Maybe she had been kind of forward up there, given how hot-cold things could be with Weiss, but she'd needed that comfort.

 _And I guess Weiss had too,_ Ruby thought, letting her gaze catch on the pull of Weiss' shirt, where it had ridden up to expose the skin at the small of her back, and a rush of warmth suffused her.

Behind her, Blake cleared her throat. Ruby froze, looking over her shoulder and feeling like she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She offered Blake a weak, rueful smile.

"If you're quite done checking her out?" 

Ruby was absolutely grateful Blake was keeping her voice low and discreet, but would it kill her to bat an eyelid when Ruby scowled at her?

"Yang's still catching up on her sleep," Blake said, closing her book on a finger and tucking her legs beneath her weight. "Perhaps we can make ourselves useful and deliver the new ichor samples to Doctor Cyan?"

Ruby's contentment faded, and she cast a fleeting, unhappy look toward where the truck mirror and ichor were bagged up on the coffee table. Her stomach twisted. Cyan totally had his heart in the right place, and it was clear that he was doing the best he could with the tools at his disposal, but... 

Quietly, Ruby said, "I want to take it to Atlas. Tomorrow."

"Atlas?" Blake's eyebrows rose, but as she met Ruby's gaze, her surprise sharpened into understanding. "You want to talk to Penny about this."

"Well, I don't see why not!" Maybe it was just the brutality of the past day getting to her, but it was hard not to feel a little defensive at Blake's tone. "Penny and Doctor Polendina have state of the art equipment--"

"Mostly related to robotics and aura research," Blake cut in, unconvinced. 

"--but _also_ around anti-Grimm technology!" Ruby countered. She closed the distance between them in three long strides, wanting to lower the volume a little. "Even if they can't help, I really think they'll know someone who can. It's better than doing things the Mantle way, because so far, none of it has worked!"

"Perhaps this might be an idea." Blake's words were slow and thoughtful, and she looked up at the wall of evidence. "If things really are being buried on us, if the investigation is being deliberately hamstrung by Mantle... then perhaps getting our tests run in Atlas might not be a bad option."

Ruby frowned down at her, chewing her lower lip. "You really think corruption is a part of this, don't you?"

"I'm not married to the theory, but all of these errors, all of these omissions... No, I don't believe an unhappy coincidence covers it." Blake exhaled softly, tearing off a corner of a nearby piece of paper to use it as a proper bookmark. "If you're going to Atlas, perhaps it'll also be worth your while to track down a professor familiar with Mistralian runes and glyphs."

"You mentioned that before." Ruby wrinkled her nose, leaning the small of her back against the couch. "Do you really think there will just _happen_ to be one there?"

"It's Atlas. If it has a practical application, there's a team publishing a paper on it and seeking a grant as we speak." Blake craned her neck back to look at Ruby, her golden eyes amused. "You're not very familiar with Atlas, are you?"

"No," Ruby conceded quietly, nodding her head toward where Weiss was finally emerging from the bedroom with a change of clothes. "But Weiss is. I bet she'll know where to start looking."

Weiss frowned across at Ruby and Blake, made entirely suspicious at the mention of her name. As Ruby held her silence, only lifting her hand in a small wave and flashing her a smile, she scoffed and retreated to the bathroom. 

When the door clicked shut behind Weiss, Blake said, "That's true. But she may not want to go." 

"Maybe," Ruby replied. She'd always wanted to see Atlas in person, instead of just out the window of a bus. While she wanted to go with Weiss most of all, it wasn't just about her, was it? Ruby sighed, running an exhausted hand through her hair. "All I can do is ask her."

"Do you believe she'd refuse you anything?" Blake looked up at her, thoughtful. 

Ruby glanced down the hallway to the apartment's bathroom, listening to the sound of running water for a long moment. 

"No. But... I think there's a difference, for her, if I ask."

"Very nicely observed." Blake hesitated, her brow creasing as she added, "I had much the same thoughts today, though I'd not speak them here."

Ruby's eyebrows rose, finally getting the hint from earlier. Blake hadn't really wanted to run the ichor to Cyan, she'd wanted a private word away from the apartment. She wanted to slap her forehead--she really was out of it, wasn't she?

"I do need to get parts if I'm gonna repair Stratworth's scroll." She offered Blake a shrug and a hopeful smile. "Come with?"

Blake set aside her book, rising smoothly to her feet. "I thought you'd never ask."

###

Blake had said little as they'd quickly headed to Mantle's busier shopping district, her remarks dry, offhand and only offered when Ruby had pried them out of her. Whatever Blake had wanted to talk about, it seemed like she was waiting for somewhere less packed with foot traffic, so when Auret's hunter wholesale store seemed quiet, just the odd hunter browsing the food and shelves of miscellaneous stuff, Ruby felt a flush of relief. 

Auret himself didn't seem to around, another employee manning the checkout counter, but in the back of her mind, Ruby was sure she'd seen an electronics section beyond all the shelves. He really had put together a weird sort of shop, targeted toward hunters just as desperate to replace their broken supplies as they were for cheap food.

"So..." Ruby trailed off, nodding toward the back of the store. At Blake's continuing silence, she cast a look over her shoulder. "What did you want to talk about?"

Blake didn't quite meet her eyes. "I thought you might have... questions about what happened today."

"Plenty of those," Ruby muttered, and maybe she was being a little unfair, but... She turned away from Blake again, worrying her lower lip as she lead the way through the maze of shelves. The electronics section was smaller than she'd hoped, given how smashed up Stratworth's scroll was, but she could probably make do. 

"Yang says you found her at the warehouse, and that she was..." Ruby hesitated, kneeling to examine a few replacement screen options. She was torn on what had gone down. Since Weiss had left, the day had been varying degrees of awful, but good had come from it all, too. 

She sighed, looking up at Blake. "I... wanted to say thanks. For going to get her, instead of me."

Blake didn't reply, studying Ruby's expression, the flicker of her cat ears back and forth the only real tell of her unease. Finally, she said, "You don't need to pretend you liked what happened. I know." 

Ruby felt her cheeks colour, and she looked back toward the stacks of scroll screens. She really had been far less subtle about all that than she'd have liked--her conversation with Yang had been proof enough of that. Regardless of how terrible Ruby had felt at the time, though, things had worked out in the end, and she really wished she could be rid of the lingering, bitter taste in her mouth. 

It wasn't fair on anyone to let it fester and infect, so as she sorted through screen sizes, she spoke honestly. 

"No, you're right. I didn't like it. I felt shut out of an important decision and I really don't want that to happen again. But..." Ruby paused, sighing as she took up a particularly promising screen, checking the specs before flipping it over to check the price with a wince. "I get why, and it was the right call amongst a ton of really bad ones."

Blake made a sound beneath her breath, non-committal and reluctant. "Sometimes, they aren't your calls to make. Just the way they aren't mine." 

"Speaking of that--she talked to me again tonight," Ruby offered, her hands stilling as she looked up, trying to read Blake's reaction. It had always been an uphill battle with Blake, however, and frustrated, she took up another scroll screen. "Before you ask, it wasn't like last time. There were no deflections, just... she won't say _why_ yet. But things are bad, aren't they?"

Blake's expression grew wary, her arms crossed in front of her chest. She didn't want to lie to Ruby, that was clear, but she had Weiss' back on this just as much as Ruby had suspected. 

"They are."

Ruby felt the glass screen in her hands suddenly fracture beneath her fingers, and startled, she stared down at it, blindsided by the reactionary, brutal anger searing deep in her chest. Toward Jacques Schnee, toward Mantle, toward feeling so helpless and worse, ignorant. _Naive._ She'd been through hell to protect her loved ones once, and she'd do it again in a heartbeat--for _any_ of them. 

But she shouldn't have to. Things should have been better after Salem, for all of them, and yet they weren't. Choking down her anger, she held her silence as Blake knelt beside her, and she didn't resist when her teammate took the screen from her, setting the crumpled packaging aside without a word.

"I'm not gonna make you break whatever promise you've made her," she told Blake, her heart in her throat. No matter the rough edge to her words, she meant every one of them. "I just know it's bad and I know it's about _him_. But if I made you talk, I'd be no better than he is. Just the thought of that makes me want to throw up." 

Ruby genuinely believed that if she had pushed, if she had demanded a real answer of Weiss up on the ruined complex, she would have gotten it. But--that had never been what she and Weiss were about, right from the very start of their partnership. It had never been about Ruby asserting her will over Weiss', leader or not. She'd always let Weiss take her time, to figure out how to reconcile what they were with what they needed to be as partners, while she'd waited at the halfway point. 

The balance was a delicate one at times. No matter how important their connection was to the both of them, Ruby was certain it wouldn't have survived that demand, not without destroying the trust between them. 

"She'll come around," Blake told her, quiet. She reached out, squeezing Ruby's shoulder gently. "I know she will."

"It's not _fair,_ Blake." 

"Life rarely is." Blake rocked back on her heels, her golden eyes distant. "We all know happy endings aren't that simple. Some battles don't have a clear end, no matter how hard you fight."

"Yeah," Ruby admitted with a hollow laugh, looking down through the spare scroll batteries, trying to get a handle on the hot anger still simmering in her chest. "He shouldn't be able to do this to her. I wish I could just--" 

She cut off, miming clocking the miserable old asshole right in his cruel face.

"He's one of the most powerful men on Remnant, Ruby. The rules we live by don't apply," Blake said, a note of dark humour to her voice, before she sighed. "Besides, as nice as the thought is, he's not someone you can just challenge to one on one combat and beat senseless."

"Doesn't mean I wouldn't love a chance to try," Ruby said with a stubborn huff, glancing back to Blake at the low sound of agreement. 

"I think you'd need to get in line. Personally, I think Weiss has long since called dibs."

"Yeah. She would, and I'd be cheering her on with every punch." Ruby allowed herself a tiny grin at the thought, before she slumped. "You... do know what it is, don't you?"

"Yes." Blake was quiet for a long moment as Ruby processed her answer. She rested a hand on Ruby's forearm, quietly bringing her back to the present with just a touch. "It's not that she trusts me more than you. She told me everything, but that's only because I already knew so much. The things I've seen and heard with my father... to put it mildly, there's a big storm coming, Ruby."

"All the more reason for us to have her back." Ruby shot Blake a weak smile, cuffing her on the shoulder and swallowing the sharp pang of sadness in her gut. "I'm not mad that she told you and not me. I'm really just glad she was able to talk to _someone_ about all of this."

"Don't mistake what's happening here." Blake rose to her feet, offering Ruby a hand up before pulling her in for a quick hug. Releasing her and holding her at arms lengths, Blake continued, "Weiss is right--there is a great deal of risk to her position as it stands, and from what I can confirm, there _is_ surveillance being undertaken by parties who may not have her best interests at heart. The less you know, the less risk there is of one of us slipping up."

 _Weiss._ Ruby felt her heart twist, her throat constricting as she looked toward the replacement processor chips for Stratworth's scroll. The more Ruby heard, the deeper the rabbit hole seemed to go, and the more clear it became to her that her partner was being slowly strangled by what was happening. 

She swallowed past the dryness in her throat, trying to rally as she flipped a packet over, the specs a tired blur in front of her eyes. Whatever was really going on with Weiss and her dad, Ruby would try her best to help her handle the weight, be the breath of fresh air Weiss needed. She could do that. 

At her left, Blake suddenly knelt, drawing something from the back of one of the shelves. Ruby frowned down at her, confused, before Blake held up the box, flashing her a sharp smile. 

"I think this might make tonight a whole lot easier--a scroll splitter and some links." 

Ruby's mood brightened at the sight--they'd all used scroll splitters to great effect when running missions during the Crisis. With this, she'd be able to keep in proper contact with the rest of her team, instead of sending them blind into a veritable pit of taijitu. 

"Let's get out of here--if I'm gonna repair Stratworth's scroll before we leave, I really need to get started," Ruby said, gathering the supplies she'd decided on into an arm and nodding toward the counter. "And... Thanks. For letting me talk about this. It's good to clear the air."

Blake's answering smile was warm as they passed through the shelves. "I know. I'm looking out for you just as much as I am for her. Team RWBY is in it together."

"Right. And we--"

"Ruby Rose, as I live and breathe." Auret's distinctive accent cut in, and Ruby froze, turning to look toward the counter. Hadn't there been another employee there? He waved her over, his smile wide and warm. "Had no idea you'd finally stopped on by again!"

"I didn't really see you around, otherwise I would have come and said hi," Ruby told him with a rueful laugh, ducking her head. 

She remembered the remark he'd made about off-the-record information, even if she'd been a bit distracted by dealing with Weiss at the time. If Blake and Weiss were certain that something smelled like corruption in Mantle, then there was a chance Auret could help them get a context to all of this that they lacked. 

"What's all this? Scroll repairs?" Auret clicked his tongue, turning over one of the boxes she'd left on the counter and glancing at the price with a critical eye. "Did one of your teammates bust one up?"

Ruby rubbed the back of her neck, the footage of Vermillia Stratworth throwing her scroll away vivid in her mind's eye. "Yeah, something like that."

He winced dutifully. "Shame. These parts aren't exactly cheap, even if I give you girls a contract discount."

"Who's this?" Blake asked before Ruby could respond, giving Auret a suspicious, sidelong look. That wasn't all that surprising--Blake was often the most wary of strangers within the team, and Ruby couldn't exactly blame her, given her chequered history. 

"Right, sorry. Blake, meet Auret. He's--" Ruby cut off, wondering how to describe the odd circumstances she'd met Auret in. An acquaintance? A possible informant? As one of Vanta's old teammates? Finally settling on an answer, Ruby finished a little lamely, "--a friend."

"The pleasure's all mine," Auret said, nodding to Blake gravely. "Your leader and I just keep managing to bump into one another, it seems."

"Well, this is your store," Ruby replied, shrugging a shoulder.

"And I did say you were welcome." Auret paused, looking her up and down for a moment, his expression thoughtful as he applied the active hunter discount. "So, Team RWBY took on the Stalker case? Can't say I'm surprised."

"How did you come by that information?" Blake asked, still frowning at him. 

He shrugged, completely at ease in spite of her blatant suspicion. "Got ears in a lot of places. Hear a lot of interesting things when you cater to hunters."

"And I bet you hear even more when your old leader is their boss."

Ruby's eyebrows rose at that, and she shot Blake an uncomfortable look that her teammate very deliberately ignored. Had she been the _only_ one to miss that detail when she met him? 

Auret's wide smile had faded when Ruby glanced back to him, bracing his hands on the counter as he said, "Vanta and I aren't exactly on speaking terms these days. Judging by the look on your face, you've met her--care to hazard a guess as to why?"

"Weiss told me about your team," Ruby said, quiet in the face of Auret's barely veiled anger. Her heart twisted in her chest in sympathy. "I'm sorry things ended the way they did. I don't know what I'd do if I lost any of my team, and I can't imagine how painful it was for you."

Auret paused, his fury fading as he considered her for a long moment. Finally, he sighed. "Well. Things are what they are, and there is no force in this world that can simply turn back the clock. Believe me, I've looked." 

Ruby nodded, watching him bag up the scroll parts without a word, before turning her glare on Blake. Blake could be like a surgeon with a scalpel when it came to social tact, but likewise she could be like a boarbatusk in a Dust shop. Friend or not, Ruby could never really guess _when_. 

When Auret finally passed the bag across to Ruby, he cleared his throat, apparently just as aware of the awkwardness as she was. 

"That said, I did offer my services. Found any interesting leads to speak of?" He smiled then, accepting the scroll splitter and link package from Blake with a diplomatic nod. He turned the box over to take a closer look, his eyebrows lifting. "Huh. Looks to me like you girls have a covert op planned. In relation to the Stalker case? Very interesting."

Before Ruby could confirm or deny anything, Blake cut in, "We're not really sure how the pieces fit together. Or that we should be discussing the details with you, civilian or otherwise."

"Yeah, sorry Auret," Ruby said with an apologetic look. While Auret might know something interesting, with all the discussion about surveillance and untrustworthiness... Grilling him and trading information could wait another day. "Maybe we can talk when we've got a better handle on all of this?"

"But of course." He didn't so much as bat an eye at the refusal, turning back to process the final item. "Was merely offering help, if you so choose to accept." 

"Thank you," Ruby told him, entirely genuine and passing him a few cards of lien. "I'll see you around--for sure."

Auret lifted a hand in silent farewell, but as they slipped out through the sliding doors and into the howling wind, Ruby caught Blake glancing back at him through the glass. 

Ruby nudged Blake's arm with an elbow, her voice practically whipped away from her lips by the wind as she asked, "What the heck is up with you? He's offering to help us figure out what's going on, and you're treating him like--I don't know! Like he's just as bad as those guys who fudged their reports!"

Blake glared at her, cat ears laid flat. For a long, tense moment, Ruby braced herself for an argument, because what else could go wrong today?

Unexpectedly, Blake relented, her expression softening. "I could be mistaken, and it may well be that I'm tired enough that my imagination playing tricks. But..."

Ruby circled in front of her friend, trying to read the concern in her features. "Blake? What do you think it was?"

Blake looked back to the shop's interior, her brow creasing in a frown. "It was his aura."

"I didn't feel anything," Ruby replied, worrying at her bottom lip and tracking Blake's gaze back. Through the shop windows, Auret's store seemed to emit a warm and inviting light. 

"Exactly." Blake met Ruby's eyes then, shaking her head. "I wouldn't worry if he was merely someone without training, but for an ex-huntsman..."

"He... did say he was retired," Ruby said, quiet. What did that mean, then, really? In Vale, even older hunters like Professor Port had kept some degree of active duty, so... Shaking her head, she couldn't help but feel troubled as well as they set off back to the apartment.

###

Yang awoke to the sound of shattering ceramic. 

Practically choking on her next snore, she sat upright in bed, blinking blearily and squinting at the thin thread of light filtering beneath the bedroom door. For a long moment, she waited, wondering if she'd dreamed the sound up. 

Another smash dashed her hopes, because yes, this was actually her life. With a groan, Yang leaned over the side of the bed and snatched up her bright orange hoodie from its crumpled pile on the floor. She winced as she dragged it over her head, the tightly-pulled wrap of bandages protecting her injuries more annoying than painful. 

Emerging from the bedroom, her head still swimming with sleep, Yang peered about the quiet, empty apartment, waiting. The next crash was like a knife between the eyes, but the sound seemed to be coming from the narrow alleyway outside. 

Yang's lingering weariness evaporated, burned away by the sudden scorch of adrenaline through her veins. Her blood beginning to pound, she grabbed Ember Celica's gauntlets from where she'd left them on the kitchen table, slipping them about her wrists and activating them with a twist. 

Their apartment was on street level, and the laundry had a door that opened up into the alleyway running along the outside of the block. Moving so quietly Blake would have been green with envy, Yang wove her way through the cramped, tiny laundry, as careful as possible when she turned the door's trio of deadbolts. 

She slipped out the narrow gap, letting the door click shut behind her with barely a sound. 

The wind had only grown stronger while Yang had slept, an oppressive cloud-cover now blocking out the stars and the glow from the shattered moon. The alleyway itself was a jagged mix of light and dark, orange light thrown partway down its length by the flickering streetlights from the main road. Beyond that, in the shadows by a rusting dumpster, Yang watched a brilliant white glyph bloom, gleaming against chipped ceramic and outlining Weiss' shoulders and coat in the dark. 

Her jaw dropped, and her anger flashing hot before she could cram it down, Yang growled, "Oh my god, what the hell do you think you're doing out here?"

The tiny glyph shuddered, collapsing in on itself with a puff, and from her half-obscured spot in the shadows, Weiss swore. Now that her night vision was starting to kick in, Yang could make out a pile of what she could only guess were broken bowls, the shards of them shoved off to the side of the alley. 

"Wonderful job breaking my concentration," Weiss snapped, breathlessness robbing her comment of any real edge, even if Yang could practically feel the daggers behind her glare. 

Yang crossed her arms against her chest, letting the waspish comment bounce off her harmlessly. "Call it just desserts for wrecking my beauty sleep, then."

"For you? I'm not sure another solid ten hours would help," Weiss scoffed, giving Yang a disgusted click of her tongue for good measure. She stepped back a pace and looked over her shoulder, the orange light falling across her face. 

"I'm drop-dead gorgeous and we all know it, asshole," Yang replied with a smile and a lazy wave of her hand. When Weiss didn't follow up with the next obligatory dig, her grin faded, and she took a cautious step forward, gesturing widely to the dark alleyway. "No, but really. Question stands. What the hell, Weiss?"

Weiss looked back down to the shadowy outline of the bowl, pinching the bridge of her nose with a low exhale. "I'm running an _experiment_ , Yang."

Yang rolled her eyes at the dismissive tone, settling herself down on the step by the door as she drawled, "You sound like Neptune. Science _this,_ experiment _that..._ " 

"I suppose he did have his uses." Weiss' smile was just the suggestion of a gleam in the dark. 

"Which is why you two worked out so well, right?" Yang asked, maybe just a little harsh, an odd prickle of protectiveness starting up in her stomach. The definite romantic slant of Ruby's feelings for Weiss had been apparent to her for a long time, but less clear were Weiss' feelings--toward, well, anyone _since_ Neptune.

"We were just kids." Weiss' voice was soft over the wind, and Yang's eyebrows rose, surprised by the sudden yield in place of the usual bluster. She looked tired and pensive, hugging herself, weighed down by everything on her mind. "There are times I question what in the world Ozpin was thinking back then, because _all of us_ were just kids. Ruby most of all."

Yang frowned, hooking her metal arm about a knee. She didn't remark on the leap Weiss had made--talking about Ruby, when the comment had been about her long-dead relationship with Neptune--but it did make her wonder. 

Weiss looked back to her then, her lips pressed in a flat, stubborn line. "Did you really want to know what I'm doing, or do you have another fifteen juvenile jokes you need to make first? If so, you can take your leave. It's been a long day and I'm not in the mood."

"I'll behave. Go ahead, wow me with your discoveries." Yang waved a hand, trying to lighten the mood a little as she feigned a grimace. "But if you start copying that cringey gleam-tooth smile of his, I'm legit calling the cops."

"Just shut up and watch already," Weiss told her, and in the glow cast by the streetlights, Yang caught the tail end of her eye roll. 

Weiss turned her back on Yang, extending a hand, and beneath the bowl on the ground, a small glyph bloomed once more. With how heavily the team relied upon Weiss' glyphs for support, Yang was more than passingly familiar with them--how their purpose could be altered by the force of Weiss' will, and how _that_ differed colour, Dust, the interaction of another aura or semblance, or even the old Solitas script along the edges. This one was as close to bog-standard as one of Weiss' glyphs got, a multi-purpose workhorse and a store of kinetic energy. 

The seconds crawled on, and as Yang watched the glyph slowly spin... absolutely nothing happened. Confused, she glanced up at Weiss, her question already on her lips, but she bit it back when she saw that Weiss' hand was still extended, pale energy gathered about her fingertips and a tremble down the length of her arm. 

She was breathing hard, Yang realised with a start. She'd never quite had the stamina of the rest of Team RWBY, nor the aura reserves, so unless she was even more out of practice than Yang realised... Frowning, she looked back to the glyph just in time to see it buckle in on itself, keening, the entire structure wavering dangerously before--

The bowl _exploded,_ and Yang's aura crackled and hissed in her ears as ceramic shards skittered harmlessly off her skin. The smell of ozone was sharp in her nose, and lowering the arm she'd thrown up to protect her face, she cast a wide-eyed look to her breathless teammate. 

"Okay," she said, blinking rapidly. "That was absolutely a thing, but I'm still not sure what." 

Weiss exhaled, sharp, shallow and satisfied, drawing her scroll from her pocket. She didn't look up as she made some shorthand notes, telling Yang, "Ruby and I talked about Salem." 

Whatever Yang had been expecting as an explanation, it wasn't that. 

"Oh?" she ventured, watching as Weiss knelt to push the remains of the bowl she'd _exploded_ to the side of the alleyway. "And judging by all the broken things, that went... badly, then?" 

Yang was quite literally going to wring Weiss' neck if she'd proven Yang wrong to trust her with Ruby--

"Hardly." Weiss' tone was cool, but as she rose to her feet, she looked back to Yang, her expression softening into something hesitant and deeply concerned. "She's been through a lot, hasn't she? It's no wonder she left. For the longest time, I'd wondered, but..."

Yang was quiet for a moment as she met Weiss', trying to gauge her expression as she shifted between the light and the dark. 

"Yeah," Yang finally said, nodding. "But she's still here. Still Ruby--no matter what went down back then."

Yang grimaced, a little worried the remark would land too heavily between them, or maybe that Weiss wouldn't read her knowledge for what it really was. Whatever worries she'd had were gone the moment Weiss nodded, and Yang couldn't have loved her teammate more. 

"I'm glad. There's nobody else quite like her." Yang caught the flicker of Weiss' smile in the dark, a flash of genuine affection in her eyes--a _supposed_ vulnerability she wasn't sure Weiss could recognise existed in herself, let alone admit to. "But she mentioned something from the fight. I hadn't given it much thought until tonight--I'd barely remembered _what_ I did. Salem's array."

"Yeah." Yang squinted, trying to think back and only coming up with haziness. She waved a hand, careless. "It was like some sort of relic-power-sucking... thing."

"In so many words," Weiss replied, her voice dry.

"Look, I was a little preoccupied with fighting an actual-facts witch and didn't realise this would be on the quiz." 

"No need to get defensive. I didn't say you were wrong, did I?" Weiss' smile was weary, in spite of the amusement in her tone. "Ruby said I'd dealt a significant blow to Salem's abilities when I... collapsed the array. I remember finding a thread of magic in them, looser than the rest. I reached out, and I _pulled_. The array ruptured, the kinetic power stored in them turned violently against the relics, and the rest was a chain reaction."

"That's... actually really interesting." Yang could see the theory in it, and if Weiss could consistently pull off such a feat in a fight, it could have some really interesting practical applications. That said, she really couldn't resist the urge to ruffle Weiss' feathers as she added with a grin, "So what you're saying is, you're trying to make your glyphs go bang?"

Weiss' groan was disgusted. "I don't know why I waste my breath on you."

"Because I'm an explosion connoisseur and you know it. Nora has trained me well." Yang laughed then, shrugging a shoulder. "I admit I'm a bit less excited about you using our only dishes to experiment on, though."

Weiss waved a dismissive hand. "I'll replace them."

"With your disowned heiress allowance?" Yang paused, thoughtful as she cocked her head. "Wait, is that a real thing?"

"I have savings," Weiss retorted, irritable, and Yang let herself laugh again to ease the sudden seize of tension in her teammate's shoulders. 

"Fine, whatever. So, you and Ruby talked Salem. Did you cover anything else?" she asked, leaving the question open--it was just as much about Ruby's feelings as it was about Weiss' secrets. 

Honestly, if it was Yang in that position--and once upon a time, it had been with Blake--she'd have set all the cards on the table, the consequences be damned. But Ruby wasn't her, couldn't be her. God only knew what she actually needed at this point, and Ruby was the only one who could figure it out. 

"There's not a lot I can say," Weiss told her finally, and it was enough to confirm Yang's suspicions on how the whole conversation she'd encouraged had gone. 

And really, it could have gone better, if Weiss was still holding everything inside and letting her family rule her. At least Ruby had been able to say what she'd needed to... right? Yang didn't like it, and while she sure as hell wasn't about to kick Weiss when she was down, there was too much riding on everything.

"Cool." She rested her chin in the palm of her hand, watching Weiss for a long moment, trying to decipher the strange sense of defeat she was reading in her teammate. "Okay, I wanted to talk about tonight, then."

The corner of Weiss' mouth lifted in the hint of a smirk as she asked, "Yang Xiao Long, are you getting cold feet?"

"For a heist? Please, you should know me way better than that." Yang's answering smile faded into seriousness again as she looked Weiss up and down. "Tonight, there's a big chance things'll go south. No plan survives contact with the enemy, and Blake isn't wrong. If we get caught messing with the SDC in Mantle, we could spark something bad."

Weiss frowned, turning to face Yang fully. "What's your point?"

"Promise me something. If things start getting dangerous, you look out for Ruby _first._ " Yang met Weiss' eyes, unflinching. "Blake and I have each other's back. That's just how we are. I'll feel a hell of a lot better if I know for _sure_ that you're looking out for Ruby the same way."

"Yang--"

"I love Ruby a lot, but you know how she can lone wolf it," Yang broke in, her jaw firming and her words growing harsh. "You _know_ what she's like."

Weiss nodded, her expression unhappy as she looked away, her arms crossed against her chest. "I know. But what you're asking goes without saying."

"Does it?" Yang asked, and she saw Weiss freeze. "I mean, sure, your judgement is usually pretty sound--until it comes to your family." 

"What exactly are you implying?" Weiss' voice was cold.

"Weiss, I'm not trying to give you a hard time over any of this. If I didn't care, I wouldn't be doing this at all!" Yang snapped, ignoring Weiss' reactionary, furious glare. "But she _needs_ you, even if she's not gonna say it. Tonight, it's not about you and whatever mess your family is in. It can't be. If you aren't all in with us, with her, then things are going to get dangerous and we're all going to pay for it."

Weiss looked away from her then, turning her back toward the streetlight, and for a long moment, Yang was certain she'd earned herself an explosion of self-justified Schnee temper. But when Weiss finally spoke, her voice was quiet and barely audible over the wind.

"You're right." Yang almost did a double-take at the concession, but when Weiss turned back to her, no matter how tired her expression was, she was unfaltering. "I have been acting poorly, yes, especially last night and today. There is no excusing that. But there's been an explanation."

"An explanation we can't even hear?"

"You've just said it yourself--you'd prioritise Ruby over our mission and you've asked me to promise that, too." Weiss sighed, pressing the heel of her palm to her temple, and it was only then that it really hit home for Yang how deeply the wounds ran. "And I will. You don't need to doubt that. But you need to trust _my_ choices about my family, too, because there is just as much at stake."

"Whitley?" Yang guessed, skeptical, as Weiss held her silence, the real person she was trying to protect hit Yang like a ton of bricks. _Winter._ She was protecting Winter, just the same way Yang would protect Ruby. She stared at Weiss, her mind whirling as she finally understood. "Oh." 

"I've said too much already." Weiss' voice was soft and laden with self-recrimination, and she buried her face in her hands for a moment. "God only knows who's listening in. Or what's going to come of it, if they are." 

Yang rose to her feet, closing the distance between them. 

"If you talked about this a bit with Ruby, and she trusts you, that's enough for me. You've long ago earned it." Yang punched Weiss' bicep lightly, before grasping her shoulder. "And yeah, you did mess up last night, not gonna lie. Maybe you didn't handle some of this as well as you could have. But you know what? We've all been there and we've all messed up just the same." 

Weiss offered her a weary smile. "I didn't realise this lecture was also a peptalk." 

"And here I thought you'd be proud of my multi-tasking." Yang nodded toward the door as she added, "C'mon. It's stupid-cold out here right now, and I believe our illustrious leader gave some very strict orders about sleep." 

Weiss' smile flashed immediately to disgust as she jerked her shoulder away from Yang's grip. "Don't patronise me." 

Yang hummed beneath her breath, impulse seizing her as she grabbed hold of Weiss and hoisted over her shoulder. Weiss choked back a curse, smacking Yang square in the back of her head with an elbow. Yang let her aura absorb the blow, holding on tight as she carried Weiss back into the apartment and through the laundry. 

"Yang!" Weiss snapped, and Yang wondered then if it was possible to hear the blush in someone's voice. "Put me down, immediately, or I'll set fire to your--"

"Huh, that wind outside is awful loud tonight. Seems to be blowing a lot of hot air, too. Weird." It was only when Yang reached the bedroom Weiss was sharing with Ruby that she finally relented, setting her teammate down and shoving her inside with a laugh. "If you weren't so tired, you'd have had me running for cover. Go and sleep. We'll get you up in time."

Before Weiss could open her mouth to argue, Yang closed the door in her face.

###

_In the long years since she'd slipped her father's grasp, Weiss hadn't returned to Schnee manor. To find herself here and now chilled her, a thousand memories of helplessness and suffocating subservience flashing to mind and taking hold. That this was simply another dream changed little._

_Back then, she'd been confined to this very room. At first, it had been by choice, and later by his orders. In this nightmare, however, things were different. A mirror ran the length of her old room, the smooth, obsidian glass set against the wall the windows had once occupied, stretching from the ceiling to the floor._

_It was freezing, far colder than the manor was normally kept, and her breath rose in a cloud from her lips. She approached the mirror slowly, her heels echoing and discordant against the tiles, feeling for all the world she was eighteen again and bound by twisted chains of legacy and expectation._

_She stopped just shy of the darkened glass, her impassive reflection staring back at her, dead-eyed and defeated, still dressed as though she was just returned from a charity gala. The details were wrong, though, warped and off-key. Her dress was tattered, her knuckles bloodied and bruised, her scar standing out stark and black against her flesh._

_Her breath caught, and she lifted a hand to brush the familiar divot of her scar. Blinding pain lanced back through her skull the moment she touched it, and crying out, she clawed at her eye. Something impossibly hot ran between her fingers, down her cheek and chin, and she watched black ichor drip down on the tiles._

_Horrified, Weiss looked back to the mirror, her eye socket a mess of blackness, fresh blood and ruined tissue between the gaps of her fingers. In the reflection, she watched the room behind her resolve and become something else entirely between one breath and the next._

_The hall were she'd fought the haunted armour loomed dark and freezing, and in the shadows red eyes blazed beyond a helm just as familiar to her as her scar. She swore, dropping her hand from her ruined eye._

_The armour advanced, relentless and implacable, its heavy, bloodied blade dragging behind it. Weiss felt instinctive terror swell in her chest, and she grasped blindly for her weapon and only to find herself empty-handed._

_"I defeated you," she rasped as it drew near, barely recognising her own voice for the creeping horror of failure that surely couldn't be. This had been her bargain, her freedom as the stakes and the reward both. "I won!"_

_What do you wish for? the mirror whispered behind Weiss, and she whirled, ichor running freely down her face, searing like acid in her blood. Her mind blanked, her reflection staring back at her from the smooth, dark glass._

_Red eyes. White skin. Black veins._

Weiss awoke with a sharp inhale, air shuddering into her lungs, suffocated like she'd been trapped and held by an impossible weight on her chest.

"Weiss?" 

It was Ruby's hand on her shoulder, Weiss realised with another sharp inhale, only then becoming aware the scent of roses flooding her senses. Swallowing, she stared up at the dark suggestion of her leader for a moment, the thundering of her heart in her ears loud enough to drown out the world, wordless and terrified. 

Ruby's hold on her shoulder tightened, gentle but firm, an anchor to reality. Weiss' eye was fine, she was in Mantle, Ruby was there and it was just another stupid dream. Slowly, the pounding of her pulse began to ease, the strangling knot in her chest going slack, and she dared allow herself a moment of weakness, reaching up to grasp her partner's wrist.

"Bad dream?" Ruby asked, leaning forward, her elbow on her knee when she finally drew her hand away. "Do you maybe want to talk about it?"

Weiss swallowed thickly again, still breathless and sweating. Ruby was back, Weiss realised, her mind still struggling to put the obvious together. Ruby was here, sitting on the edge of the bed, comforting Weiss when she'd already endured the brunt of Weiss' issues more than enough today. 

But Ruby was asking the question, Weiss reminded herself. She had promised she'd try to be more honest. 

"I--I think so," she admitted, propping herself up on her elbows, hating the hesitant stumble in her words and the fresh stab of panic in her stomach. "I was... back in Atlas. Back at the manor."

The fact that Salem's visage had paid her a visit was unsurprising, given the way the war had weighed on her mind since her discussion with Ruby--but her dream had been about more, the suffocating history with her father that seemed destined to be her undoing. Weiss didn't need to detail that particular quiet horror to Ruby, and she watched the dim shadow of her partner slowly nod.

"Not on my watch, you're not." Ruby's voice was light but firm, and she shifted on the bed, the springs groaning beneath her added weight. "After all, you're kinda important to this whole mission at the SDC."

Weiss stared at Ruby for a long moment, bleary and confused, before abruptly the details were thrown into sharp resolve. 

"Shit!" she snarled, throwing off her blankets hard enough to _thwap_ Ruby right in her face. Heedless of the sudden cold on her legs and arms, she snatched up her scroll from the bedside stand and examined the time with another bitten-off curse. Yang had promised her! "Why didn't you wake me earlier?!" 

"I knocked twice!" Ruby protested, laughing when Weiss shot her an irritable look. In the sudden pale light from Weiss' scroll, she was grinning. "And you were snoring when I ducked my head in before, so maybe I figured you needed a little more rest?"

Weiss clicked her tongue, disgusted as she hit the switch on the bedside light, squinting away her discomfort and the weary spots dancing in front of her eyes. "That's no excuse for jeopardising our mission!"

"You're being so dramatic! It's not 'jeopardised', we've got plenty of time," Ruby said, and even if she rolled her eyes, her smile hadn't faltered. "We're leaving early because _Yang_ wants to go to that greasy spoon down the road. I mean, I hear you did bust up all our plates."

"It was for science," Weiss scoffed, but the sharp snarl of irritation between her shoulders was already loosening beneath the sunny onslaught of Ruby's smile. She never could stay angry with her, could she?

"You always say that." Ruby's amusement crashed as she watched Weiss toss a fresh shirt onto the bed, her expression becoming unmistakably panicked. She surged to her feet, looking in every direction but Weiss' as she managed, "I'll just--I'll be going, just let me--sorry--"

Ruby hightailed it out of the bedroom in a rush of petals, and Weiss watched the swirling tornado of them settle on the carpet. Suppressing a small smile, she shed her sleep shirt, tugging on her trousers and shirt before reaching for her grey coat. 

When Weiss emerged from the bedroom, tying her hair back in the short, loose braid she'd kept that day, Ruby had retreated to a spot at the kitchen table, while Yang and Blake were on the couch. Just how long had they been waiting on her? Ruby was bent over something, however, and Weiss frowned, craning her neck for closer inspection. It looked like the stripped-down innards of a scroll--Stratworth's?

"You're making quick work of that," Weiss told her, casting an eye over the pile of bent and broken parts Ruby had replaced. 

Ruby cleared her throat, and if the traces of red in her cheeks was any indication, she was still flustered. "Thanks, I just figured--" she paused, suddenly looking Weiss up and down, her awkwardness shifting to surprise. "Wait, is that what you're wearing on the mission?"

Weiss' jaw tightened. She was far, far too tired to deal with a song and dance, and unamused, she asked, "What exactly is _wrong_ with what I'm wearing?"

Ruby winced, and she rubbed the back of her neck, awkward. "I mean, it's a really nice coat and all, but..."

"But?"

"Well..." Ruby trailed off again, casting another look up and down Weiss, finally sighing in defeat. "It's white and fancy and kind of... I don't know, super-Schnee."

Weiss rolled her eyes, but her hand instinctively strayed to the sigil stitched into her coat's shoulder as she said, "Ruby. Everything about me is 'super-Schnee'."

Yang craned her neck to look over the back of the couch, flashing Weiss an infuriating smile as she offered, "And not very Schneeky at all. Right? Hey?"

"That's quite enough out of _you_ ," Weiss growled, very much tempted to throw the damn coat at Yang's smug face. 

"They have a point, you know." Blake rose to her feet while Yang continued to guffawed at her own bad joke, her expression thoughtful. "We are attempting to be covert, so perhaps advertising your relationship with the company might be unwise." 

"I'm not an idiot!" Weiss retorted, shifting her shoulders as the three of them shared a look. Why did that always give her a sense of oncoming dread? "Valid point or not, I don't exactly have anything _else_ to wear."

Blake hummed beneath her breath, casting an amused, sidelong glance to Ruby. It seemed that they'd both reached the same conclusion, and without a further word to Weiss, they vanished back into their rooms. Yang shrugged when Weiss looked to her in weary askance, already digging around beneath the piles of paper and schematics all over the coffee table. 

A few moments later, Blake returned, tossing across one of her spare leather jackets. It hit Weiss square in the chest before she thought to catch it, before it was immediately followed by one of Ruby's faded grey and red hoodies. 

"Really?" Weiss asked, the question directed at all three of them.

"It'll be a little long in the arms, but you'll certainly stick out less," Blake said, giving her a quelling look when Weiss opened her mouth to argue further. 

"Fine. I'll try it," Weiss replied, shrugging free of her coat and passing it to Blake with perhaps a more force than required. 

Ruby's spare hoodie really was as worn thin as it had looked, the cuffs fraying at the seams and the whole thing a faded grey with the odd stripe of washed-out red. Despite herself, Weiss hesitated. It was clean, yes, but when she finally pulled it over her head, all she could smell was roses and the persistent scent of the oil Ruby used on Crescent Rose. It made her wonder--how many times had Ruby slept in the thing while, on the road with Yang?

Blake passed her the leather jacket, scuffed at the elbows and longer than Weiss' tastes ran, but it fitted well enough through the shoulders over the hoodie. Ruby tugged the hood up over Weiss' head to test, her silver eyes considering as she carefully tucked Weiss' short braid down the back her clothing. 

"The scar might still be a bit obvious," Ruby observed to Blake, letting the hood fall back. She bit her lip, looking back over her shoulder to where Yang had just emerged from her hunt through the couch cushions, a lurid, violet beanie in hand. 

Weiss didn't have enough time to question where that thing had come from or how long it had been there, before Yang's expression brightened.

"Don't sweat the small stuff, Weiss! You might even say I've got this _covered."_ With that, Yang jammed the scratchy thing down over Weiss' head. Weiss sighed, pulling the beanie back above her eyes, listening to the sound of Yang digging through her pockets. 

"Have any of you morons heard of personal space?" Weiss asked, feeling just a little harassed by the entire situation and scowling as Yang grabbed her chin. Resisting the powerful urge to knock her away, Weiss' eyes instead fell on the skin-toned foundation pen between Yang's fingers. She groaned. "'Covered'. I see how it is."

Yang shrugged, popping the cap off with a thumb and leaning in close to get a closer look at Weiss' scar. " _Concealing_ your laughter at my top tier puns? Weiss, I'm hurt, really I am."

Weiss didn't miss a beat. "I guess I'll just have to _make it up_ to you." 

Even if Yang only rolled her eyes at the answering pun, Weiss felt a flash of warmth as Ruby gave a snort of laughter from where she was leaning against the back of the couch. 

"Quit trying to be funny and let me work," Yang said, biting down on her tongue as she touched up the scar. Finally, she leaned back with a satisfied nod, snapping the lid back on. "All done, and not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Nobody will even know they've got the ex-heiress in the building!"

"Instead, I'll simply look like a crime against fashion and good taste. Wonderful," Weiss replied, her voice dry. She looked down over herself, struck by the odd mixture of frustration and flattery she was feeling. 

The colours clashed horribly, and she was wearing every last symbol in her team but her own, but it was... _nice_ that they cared. Impulsive, Weiss reached up to touch her scar beneath the layer of makeup, before thinking better of it. She normally didn't bother hiding it--it was proof of her first major rebellion against her father's wishes, that she'd fought the geist Grimm haunting the armour, that she'd rightly won her place at Beacon. 

It was just... odd timing, after her dream. 

As Yang and Blake began to grab the rest of their gear, Weiss found herself at a loss. Normally, she'd be checking Myrtenaster and her Dust supplies before any major mission, but it was far too distinctive in design and lacked the covert forms both Gambol Shroud and Ember Celica could collapse down to. 

She still stood by that design choice, despite how inconvenient it was tonight. It still felt strange to be moving out without its comforting presence at her side, however. 

Ruby, it seemed, had already finished her preparations before she'd awoken Weiss, Crescent Rose strapped to the small of her back. Instead, she finished up whatever modifications she'd been making to Stratworth's scroll, before hooking it up to an external, backup battery. 

She placed the scroll back on the table top, and it was only when she had nothing left to distract her that Weiss realised how tense her partner really was. Weiss couldn't blame her. 

Looking up as Weiss approached, Ruby asked quietly, "You okay?"

Weiss wished she could say something reassuring to ease Ruby's own worry, but the task was simply beyond her. Instead, she settled for solidarity, and she told Ruby, "I could ask the same of you." 

Ruby made a low, considering sound beneath her breath, looking across to Weiss. 

"Me? I just can't help but think _something's_ missing." Ruby snapped her fingers then, her expression brightening, and she vanished in a whirl of petals. Weiss sighed, too tired to try to keep up as she instead pulled on her boots and gloves, before something soft looped around her neck. 

It was the red scarf Ruby had bought at the store yesterday, the one Weiss hadn't quite summoned the courage to wear. Ruby's smile was small and crooked as she adjusted it about Weiss' neck. 

"There! Needed more red, you know?" 

Weiss straightened, staring at Ruby, not quite sure what to say, a thousand words frozen at the tip of her tongue. 

"Okay, look alive you two! My stomach is about ready to eat my spine!" Yang called out, already halfway out the door, and Weiss shook her head, blinking. 

"Geez, Yang, hold on! We're coming!" Ruby replied, laughing, before she looked back to Weiss, her expression slowly becoming more serious. "But... I just want to say. You said, everything about you is 'super-Schnee'. Well, not your smile." Ruby rubbed the back of her neck, her cheeks colouring. "It's just... you. Weiss."

Weiss swallowed, and she was absolutely not flustered, but suddenly she couldn't bear to look in Ruby's general direction. 

"What an absurd thing to tell anyone. Who else would I be?" Weiss asked, an edge to her voice. Ruby started to laugh, and irritable, Weiss elbowed her in the side. "Would you stop that already?"

"Stop what?" Ruby asked, her voice warm and delighted. "I just think it's funny when you're like this. It's been a long time."

"It's too bad you've never quit being so obnoxious." Weiss was disgusted with how easily her heart went to skipping a beat at the slightest provocation. Every time she believed her emotions mastered, Ruby did something small and stupidly endearing--

"Oh my god, enough with the chatter! Don't make me come back there!" Yang called out again. 

Ruby grinned, nodding toward the door, and Weiss followed the rest of her team into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just the way I needed my own break from Reprise, Team RWBY desperately needed a little breather from all the drama. With a pretty intense and action-heavy arc about to kick off, I really find the quieter chapters important for tying up a few loose threads like the Yang-Weiss conflict and the Blake-Ruby decision.
> 
> Also I really apologise for not having gotten around to responding to last chapter's comments, I've been living under a Rock of Solitude and interaction is really difficult for me. But I just want to say that I really appreciate everyone's kind words and will try to respond soon!


	12. Industrial Espionage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mission at the depot was never going to be simple, and the SDC connection only grows murkier.

From her distant rooftop, her hood drawn up in feeble protection against the wind and the constant mist of rain, Ruby watched through her scope. It felt like she'd been in these lonely warehouse ruins for hours, observing the ebb and flow of movement, studying the yard, tracking the patterns of guard patrols and their blind spots, watching for weakness and complacency. 

The SDC depot was lit up like a beacon in the night, stark and pristine and rising above the surrounding shadows of Mantle's twisted wreck and rubble. The floodlights set at the perimeter's every corner threw the loading yard into eye-searing relief, exposing the hum of activity within as labourers, admin staff and security worked on the long line of shipping containers stacked near the railway track access. 

Weiss had been exactly right in expectations of the depot's security, but then Ruby hadn't expected anything less of her partner. She passed her scope over a group at the shipping containers loading crates of Dust onto a waiting forklift, the stack of dark, glossy boxes growing dangerously high.

Most of the workers Ruby had observed seemed desperate, all too happy to trade safety and fair pay for a few extra lien to rub together. Even to Ruby, it was clear exploitation by a company with too much power and zero moral compass, and her stomach twisted in weary sadness. 

With General Ironwood and Atlas just over the mountain range, how could things in Mantle have gotten so... out of hand? 

_"--Ruby? Hey, Ruby, are you there?"_ Yang's voice buzzed in Ruby's earpiece, and it was only the insistent repetition of her name that finally caught her attention. Hitting the mic fastened to her hood and pulling out her scroll, Ruby tuned back in. 

"I can hear you loud and clear, Yang. Sorry."

 _"Spacing out on us at a time like this?"_ Yang asked, a teasing undercurrent to her digital tones, her image on the scroll screen lighting up with each word. 

_"Perhaps she simply grew tired of listening to you and Weiss bicker,"_ Blake cut in before Ruby could scrape together a diplomatic answer. _"I'd empathise, but I like to think of you both as white noise at this point."_

"Something like that," Ruby admitted with a small laugh. The whole situation felt like a weird pendulum in her head, two extremes competing for her attention. They were on a high-stakes infiltration mission, of course, but listening in on her team as they laughed and joked...

It felt normal in a way Ruby had missed so badly, and she wanted to capture this moment, to keep it forever. 

_"My sister and my girlfriend ganging up on me?"_ Yang heaved a resigned sigh. _"That's so unfair."_

 _"'Unfair' implies its undeserved,"_ Weiss replied with a scoff, but any acid to the comment was belied by the sound of her smile in her voice. _"Frankly, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen."_

_"How many times do I have to tell you, Weiss, I'm the hottest thing since--"_

_"Don't you dare start it with that tired old joke--_ "

"And there they go again," Ruby grumbled over the scramble of their voices, the sourness of the remark enough to shame them both to silence. Satisfied--and maybe slightly amused--Ruby turned her red nightscope back down to the warehouse across the railway tracks. 

Thunder rolled above the depot, the sky black and heavy as pitch between flashes of silver lightning. Ruby craned her neck up, watching the oncoming storm, knife-edge anticipation striking up in her blood. 

_"Ruby. Weiss and I are in position."_ Blake's voice was quiet over the link, and Ruby shifted, watching through her scope as a pair of dark shadows flitted across a rooftop of a crumbling warehouse, just a stone's throw away from the SDC depot. 

_"Ready to do this when you are, Rubes,"_ Yang told her. Right on cue, she appeared at the mouth of the dimly-lit alleyway closest to the depot's security gate, raising her hand in a wave as Ruby's scope passed over her. _"I'm itching for some action!"_

Ruby didn't reply, her gaze flickering back down to her scroll again to check the time--soon. She'd agreed to run tactical for the mission, and admittedly, she wished she hadn't. She itched to be out there with them, but someone had to call the shots. As their leader, that someone had to be her. 

Wordless, she watched the activity quieten in the depot yard, worrying at her lower lip for a long moment--given the time, the labourers were making their way back to the main building with what had to be their final loads. 

"Looks like the shift is gearing up to change. That's our sign," Ruby said, resisting the urge to check over them all one last time before they went in without her. She drew a long, steadying breath, and while she knew they wouldn't be able to see her smile, she managed one for her team anyway. "Good luck."

###

Blake pressed her back against the rain-drenched wall, the leather of her jacket catching on crumbling mortar and scorched brickwork. In the short time since she and Weiss had arrived at their insertion point, the rain had soaked right through her beanie and scarf, her dark jeans growing damp and a chill settling into her flesh. She listened, beyond the whip of the wind and the spatter of rain against the rubble, to the sound of shouting, whistles and machinery in the main depot yard. 

She and Weiss were holed up in the burned-out skeleton of a neighbouring warehouse, well hidden from security and a perfect vantage point for the first phase of their infiltration. Their target was a small vent, just one of an identical dozen set into the otherwise featureless rendered brick. From their hiding spot, it was only a hop across the gap. 

With layers of security to negotiate and predict, however, their first task was far easier said than done. 

Leaning out and around the remains of the warehouse wall, Blake squinted against the warehouse floodlights, picking out the glint of a security camera over the edge of the roof and mentally adding its presence to the other two nearby. She watched them rotate in slow, sectioned increments to cover a wide field of view, before finally ducking back just as the nearest camera brought its lens over their hiding spot. 

To Weiss, crouched at her side on what looked like one of the less dubious sections of scorched flooring, Blake murmured, "There's a blind spot in their coverage of our vent. Judging by their rotation speeds, it comes up once every one minute twenty."

When Weiss didn't acknowledge her, Blake rocked back on her heels, casting her friend a sidelong look. 

"Weiss?" she tried again, this time reaching out to shake Weiss' shoulder. 

Weiss jolted, her hand darting up to mute her earpiece. "Sorry. Did you say something?"

Her tone was deliberately even--and it _screamed_ guilt. Blake arched an eyebrow, tilting her head to the side as she guessed, "Was that Ruby?" 

"She... she was doing a very immature impression of Yang flirting her way through security," Weiss admitted after a long moment, and Blake didn't even need to see the gleam of her teeth in the dark to know she was smiling. "I think she may be going a little stir-crazy, considering she's all alone."

"You seem to be doing an admirable job of keeping her company, then," Blake replied, rolling her eyes and shifting to look back out over the brightly-lit stretch of fencing between them and the target.

 _"Yang made it in, so we've got eyes on a ton of the guards now. Most of them seem congregated in distributions, but a few have been sent off for perimeter patrols. There's a pair of them coming your way now,"_ Ruby told them, apparently all business now that Weiss was no longer encouraging her flirting. _"All up, between the guards and the cameras, you're only gonna have ten seconds to work with. We need to make it count."_

"Ten seconds?" Weiss hissed, her earlier good mood vanishing. "Are you--"

"That's plenty of time." Blake drew Gambol Shroud from her back, coiling the ribbon around her arm and feeling for the hidden armguards beneath her sleeves, checking the smoke pellets and knives with reflexive care. She'd agreed to be first through the vent, given Weiss had been forced to leave her highly-recognisable rapier behind. If she ran straight into SDC security... 

She exhaled, shifting her shoulders, wishing she didn't feel so stiff from waiting in the cold. "On your signal then, Ruby."

There were a few beats of silence over the comm, and Blake listened to the sound of heavy footsteps passing underneath them, the jingle of body armour and the crackle of radios, before the patrol moved along. She released the breath she'd been holding, wiping the rain from her eyes. 

_"Weiss, prepare to remove the cover--carefully."_

"When have I ever _not_ been careful?" Weiss asked beneath her breath, and from her vantage point, Blake watched a tiny glyph bloom at each corner of the bolted vent cover. "Ready."

_"Blake, use Gambol Shroud to get the cover free and bring it back across, right when Weiss busts the screws loose."_

Blake hesitated, lightning igniting the overhead storm clouds in silver. She waited a few beats, and the following clap of thunder masked her throw when she fired Gambol Shroud across the gap. 

Wrapping the ribbon around her forearm and testing the strength of the anchor, she nodded to Weiss. "Now."

Weiss' glyphs began to spin, growing eye-searing bright. The screws ripped free from the mortar with a whine of bending metal, and the fell toward the ground. Blake heard Weiss bite back a curse, another small glyph blooming to rebound them back to Weiss' outstretched hand. 

Blake pulled hard on Gambol Shroud's ribbon. With the bolts gone, the cover tore away from the wall and toppled forward, hitting Weiss' larger glyph before it could crash down to the ground and draw attention. Looping her ribbon back around her arm, Blake reeled it back in before setting the vent cover against the broken wall at her side. 

With just seconds to spare, Blake bounded across the gap, off Weiss' next glyph before it had fully formed and pitching herself feet-first through the narrow opening. She rolled to break her fall as she crashed down into the darkness, instinctively sending out a decoy shadow forward from her position even as she darted backwards. 

Her nerves steeled, she checked each direction with Gambol Shroud's pistol, listening for footsteps, shouting, even the distant blare of alarms. The soft, pale glow of Weiss' glyphs lit up the hallway behind her, the smell of ozone sharp in Blake's nose.

Blake exhaled, stowing her weapon on her her back and forcing herself to relax as she told Ruby, "We're clear." 

Ruby was quiet for a long moment, surveilling the activity around the depot yards. _"Yep, I think you're clear on my end, too. But I really wish Crescent Rose had a camera attachment, because that was totally smooth."_

"There are still plenty of ways for this to mission to go south, so don't congratulate us just yet." For all Weiss' grumbling, however, she looked entirely too pleased with Ruby's comment. 

"We'll be in touch, Ruby," Blake told their leader, before reaching up to mute her scroll's mic. Rolling her eyes at Weiss over her shoulder, she said, "You really do have it bad for her, don't you?"

Weiss' smile faded immediately. "Excuse me?" 

Rolling her eyes again at the bristling response, Blake nodded toward the glow of fluorescent lighting down the hallway. "Come on. We need to hurry."

Blake could practically feel Weiss' glare like a knife between her shoulders, but she very carefully ignored it in favour of paying attention to their mission and trying to get her bearings. Based on the old plans Weiss had located from god only knew _what_ restricted archive, the Mantle SDC depot was divided into three main sectors--distributions and main office, refinement and security, and cold storage. 

Ahead of them, Blake could hear movement and the growling engines of waiting trucks. Distribution, obviously--where Yang had been sent undercover as a part of the SDC _unofficial_ workforce. It was the heart of the SDC's operation in Mantle, and ensured supply for all Dust shops, hunter outfitters and city-wide energy grids. The shipments came in from all over Solitas from a dozen different quarries, and while some Dust crystals were able to be sold direct to their buyers... Others contained too many impurities, introducing volatility. For those crystals, the Mantle depot had a fully-functioning refinement plant on-site, and it was easily the largest sector within the warehouse. 

For the most dangerous Dust crystals, ones that couldn't be safely handled without first undergoing intensive procedures, they awaited attention in the final sector--cold storage. 

Blake had to admit, it was a comprehensive operation. Given Mantle's lax laws and poor track-record of ethical procurement, she could guess why the SDC had invested so much into it. 

Silent, she and Weiss moved through the empty hallways, passing through a section full of unmanned offices and workdesks, but they encountered no additional security. Ahead of them, light streamed from the window of an empty manager's office, and beyond it... Blake's eyes narrowed, picking out raised segments built directly into the warehouse walls, small digital panels set into the glossy surfaces and serial numbers emblazoned on each. 

Weiss' footsteps faltered as they drew near, and Blake cast her teammate a wary look over her shoulder. 

"Automated security drone storage," Weiss said, her voice soft as she flitted forward to Blake's side. "If we get much closer without the proper passes, the system will sense it and they'll deploy."

"And so much for our mission," Blake replied, growling beneath her breath. She'd dealt with earlier models of the automatons during her White Fang days. Surprisingly enough, she could have done without this particular reunion. 

She reached up for Gambol Shroud's hilt, determined to make the most of the forewarning, but Weiss laid a hand against her forearm. Pausing, Blake glanced at her teammate in askance. 

"Leave it to me," Weiss told her, drawing her scroll from her pocket and beginning to mess with the settings in a program Blake couldn't identify. "I've dealt with these systems before."

Wary and refusing to let it slide, Blake still drew her weapon. She watched her teammate cross the hallway to the nearest of the automaton storage panels, holding her scroll up to the scanner. The datapad flashed from blue to red--and for a frightening second, Blake was sure Weiss had badly miscalculated--before it finally flickered to back to blue. The dozens of panels beyond it followed suit, and relieved, Blake let out a shaky breath. 

"How long do we have?" she asked, watching Weiss tuck her scroll back into her jacket pocket.

"Until someone notices the drones aren't responding and reboots the system," Weiss replied, and her smile held a touch of smugness. "I obtained the code from their creator. He'd become particularly _disenchanted_ with my father when he learned his work was being used for enforcement, not safety."

Blake shook her head, unbelieving. "Wouldn't your father have discovered you using something like that?"

Weiss snorted beneath her breath, her smile becoming bitter. "It's called arrogance, Blake--"

"Weiss." Blake held up a hand to stay her words, an odd twist of apprehension starting up in the pit of her stomach and prickling through her aura. 

She frowned, listening beyond the distant sound of machinery, beyond the relentless drum of rain against brick outside--to the unmistakable sound of approaching footsteps. 

"Someone's coming," Blake said, finally looking back to Weiss. "Not a security patrol. Not as... heavy."

Weiss' eyes widened a fraction as she looked down the hallway. She cursed beneath her breath, whirling and dashing back toward the offices they'd passed by earlier. Blake pursued, feverishly scanning the rows of empty desks and the walls for somewhere they could hide. Nothing.

Behind her, she heard Weiss try the door to the main office, testing the give with her shoulder before she huffed, stepping back. "Locked." 

Rapidly running out of options, Blake seized on the idea. She pushed past Weiss, sliding the razor edge of her cleaver into the jamb. With a careful tilt of the edge and just the right amount of leverage, the blade sheared straight through both the cheap metal deadbolt and the latch. Darting inside, Blake hit the lights, the steady tempo of heels on concrete twisting her gut tighter with every step, a cold shiver running down her spine. 

"You'd better hope they don't think to try the door," Weiss snapped, pressing the door shut behind her and scowling across at Blake. 

Blake didn't spare the breath on an answer. She pushed herself back against the wall, Gambol Shroud's ribbon coiling about her forearm and its weight a silent comfort in her hands. She inhaled, slow and steadying to quieten the pounding of her pulse in her ears.

The steps were slow, Blake noted, the gait unhurried. Did that mean that this was a routine patrol, with no idea that they'd nearly stumbled across an infiltration attempt? Or was it instead confidence, and she'd backed herself and Weiss into a box with nowhere left to run?

Blake looked up as Weiss extended a hand, a touch of white light at her fingertips. A tiny pair of glyphs formed over the doorknob and deadlock--probably to mimic the mechanisms Blake had broken. Blake nodded appreciatively, but Weiss still looked worried.

Outside, the footsteps slowed as they came upon the empty office area. The guard's heartbeat was steady, lingering outside the main office.

 _One guard,_ Blake told herself, a chill settling against her bones her as she reached for the door knob. Before she could act, Weiss pushed her hand away, her scowl a warning in the thin blue light from the desktop console. 

_Knock, knock._

Blake froze, her gaze darting from the doorknob and then back to Weiss with growing insistence. Weiss shook her head, holding up a hand. Sweat gleamed at her temples as the doorknob twisted, catching on the locked latch Weiss' glyph mimicked--but there was no give. 

Weiss swallowed unsteadily, her outstretched hand beginning to tremble. The lock was tried once more, _twice_ more--

A soft set of words struck up over what Blake guessed to be a scroll link. Even with her superior hearing, she couldn't make out the words, but the twist of the lock ceased immediately. 

"Damurang, reporting in. Sector three is clear. No further anomalies identified, sir." There was a pause then, more soft words scrambled and digitised. Even so, Blake could identify some features--authoritative and male. High-ranking SDC personnel, then. "Yes, of course. En route to distributions." 

The footsteps faded away down the hallway once again, but it was only when they were gone entirely that Blake allowed herself to relax. Weiss released her glyphs with a gasp, and she sank down against the door, drained.

"This is bad," Weiss breathed, wiping away the sweat from her brow with the back of her wrist. After a moment, she accepted Blake's hand, allowing herself to be pulled to her feet. "That's an SDC operative."

Blake went still.

 _"What's an operative? What's she doing here?"_ Ruby asked, and Blake belatedly realised Weiss had tuned Ruby into active communication.

"In a word? Extra security is only the tip of the iceberg." Weiss swore beneath her breath then, a volatile, angry edge to her tone that Blake recalled from Lawson's warehouse. "Such a large delivery is a huge cost, I should have known this would happen and figured out a way to--"

 _"Weiss, it's okay. We always knew the plan wasn't gonna last the moment you guys made it inside,"_ Ruby broke in, her voice low and steady, cutting through Weiss' bitter anger with an ease that gave Blake pause. _"The... operative. Is she a big enough threat that we need to call the whole thing off?"_

Weiss hesitated, and Blake watched her consider it for a long, conflicted moment. Finally, she shook her head. "It's too dangerous to back out now, and we're not going to get another chance at this. We can--we _have_ to work around her. It's your call, though."

 _"Okay."_ Ruby was quiet then, weighing their options. _"Is it safe to talk on comm link if she's here?"_

"Yes. She won't be listening for private chatter without good reason." 

_"Good. Then I'll keep an eye on her from up here, just like I was gonna for the rest of the guards. If she moves, I say so."_ Ruby's tone was certain. _"You guys have totally got this. We've been through worse."_

 _"Some chick in a white suit just appeared to throw her weight around. I take it that's her?"_ Yang asked, and Blake twitched in surprise at the sound of her voice. She hadn't expected to hear from Yang until the mission was over, but it eased the low tension in the pit of her stomach, no matter the risk Yang was taking to chime in. _"So, what exactly are we dealing with here?"_

"During my time in the White Fang, I never encountered one," Blake replied, nodding toward Weiss. "I always found the SDC's style was more... soulless automaton, not specialist elite."

True to her promise to be more open about the SDC's questionable activities, Weiss only hesitated long enough to gather her thoughts. 

"Back before Salem played her hand in Mistral, things were incredibly... _tense_ in Atlas," Weiss said, her mouth twisting in distaste at the memory. "The world was more than ready to believe Atlas was responsible for what happened to Vale. In response, General Ironwood used his position on the Atlesian council and enforced prohibitions on SDC export and trade. Naturally, it made my father furious.

"He believed he could no longer count on Ironwood to enforce their _joint interests_ and decided to take action. From what Whitley tells me, the operatives were a part of it. They were mostly Atlas Academy graduates, even specialists tempted into private sector work at the end of their military contracts." 

"'Private sector work'." Blake rolled her eyes to Weiss then, disgusted. "The euphemisms never fail to astound."

"Assassins, spies, saboteurs--all with the best training a hunting school could offer and given a paycheque that discouraged any... fledgling ethical quandary." Weiss nodded to beyond the door, where the operative had been just minutes before. Perhaps not engaging the woman in combat had been a good idea, then. "The operative--she said her name was Damurang."

 _"Have you met her before?"_ Ruby asked, her voice quiet.

"I know her by reputation alone. My father only rarely lets them off their leashes." Weiss pressed the heel of her palm to her temple as she added bitterly, "It makes me wonder what corporate yesman has slithered into Mantle recently." 

There were a few beats of uncomfortable silence as the team mulled over the information. Blake couldn't blame them if they were hesitating now--perhaps if they'd known about the operative earlier, they could have accounted for her presence better. They could have done so much differently. 

But Weiss was right. This was their best shot at getting their information. If they didn't take the risk, then where did that leave them? 

_"I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, that Jacques really does have a rollerdex of hitmen on his desk,"_ Yang said, her tone light and easy--because of course she was the one to break the silence and lift the team's low spirits. _"Next you're gonna tell me he has the mafia on speed dial."_

Weiss cracked the ghost of a smile. "Do you even want to bother guessing the answer?"

 _"You know what? Fine. The mafia can get in line too, because Team RWBY's on the job. Right, Rubes?"_

_"Right!"_ Ruby agreed, without a flicker of hesitation or doubt, and Blake felt herself smile at the infectious cheer. _"Weiss and Blake, proceed to the security office. Yang, keep an eye on Damurang. And all of you--try to keep a low profile. This mission just got interesting."_

###

_God. A miserable night and a miserable job,_ Yang thought. 

As if to perfectly punctuate her point, thunder rolled overhead, so loud this time Yang was certain the air itself winced. She tugged her hood down over her eyes again, the fur-lined wool already drenched, the tan of her leather jacket stained dark with rain at her shoulders.

She trudged after the rest of her crew, back out into the miserable haze of rain, her boots slipping and sucking in the churned up mud as they headed toward the containers stacked by the railway access. The freight train Blake had reported from that afternoon was long gone. Yang could only _imagine_ how many railcars had been attached to the shipment, because this was a seriously dizzying amount of Dust. The remaining containers were stacked high, the rain-wet metal reflecting the searing floodlights until it felt like Yang's vision began to grow spotty with it.

Ahead of her team, stuck at one of the nearest containers, another group hired muscle struggled through the mud to load crates of Dust onto another forklift. They weren't alone, _never_ alone, because what was the SDC without a bit of toxic paranoia? A couple of guards and a harassed-looking SDC administrator were standing back from the action, shouting orders the crew. 

_Go faster, more Dust, stack it higher, we're not paying you for safety--_ the whole thing was as shady as Yang had expected, made her skin crawl. In the middle of an undercover mission, what could she do? Just keep her head down, take Ruby's advice, make sure nobody died--and try not to slug any overzealous guards right in their asshole faces. 

She followed her group to the next container, the doors hanging open and the pristine cases of Dust exposed to the wind and rain. Pairing off with a particularly skinny Faunus to work on the next crate, she let the guy slip inside the shipping container ahead of her, his boots squeaking on the wet metal floor. 

"You good to take that end?" he asked, leaning on the far end with his shoulder to budge it loose.

"Yeah, just let me--" Yang cut off, grunting as she took the Dust crate's weight. She leaned past the bulk of the crate, shooting him a crooked smile. "You?"

"This isn't _my_ first rodeo," he replied, lifting the crate the full way up. His voice held a note of strain as he ordered, "Back up. Carefully, now." 

Yang rolled her eyes at him, deliberately taking the lion's share of the crate's weight, walking backwards and carefully avoiding the raised lip of the shipping container's edge. By the time her crew was done with the load, the drizzle had grown into heavy rain, the forklift had been loaded precariously high, and Yang's Faunus buddy was haphazardly strapping the crates to together. 

The forklift's driver was one of the labourers who'd rocked up for the extra lien and said he'd had experience. Given the way he had the forklift lurching and jolting around in the quagmire the yard had become, though, Yang was pretty sure that was a load of crock.

 _This is gonna get somebody killed--sooner, not later,_ Yang realised with a grimace. Nobody seemed to care. Not the SDC, not the guards, not even the poor suckers being taken advantage of. 

Well, _she_ cared. This time, she ignored the next container and followed along beside the forklift instead as it rolled back toward the warehouse, resting a hand against the side of the load.

The forklift's driver swore loudly, the stack of crates lurching dangerously against their bindings as the machinery rolled up the makeshift ramp to the depot's roller door. The rotting, wooden boards--nabbed from one of the neighbouring abandoned warehouses, Yang guessed--began to buckle dangerously beneath the forklift's weight, one of the wheels veering too close to the splintering edge and sending the entire load of volatile Dust pitching sideways. 

The driver panicked, abandoning his seat in the cab, but Yang didn't hesitate--she lunged, barely catching one of the bindings, winding it tight around her metal fist several times before hauling back. Around her, she could hear yelling, roars for her to get clear, but Yang clenched her jaw, pulling back harder. The nerve connections in her metal arm screamed protest, her boots gouging tracks through the mud as she used her own strength and weight to counterbalance the load. 

She must have earned herself a miracle, because _somehow_ the load stabilised, rocking back toward her once before settling into place. Panting, she released the strap and let it fall back against the Dust crates, staggering away to let some of the more legit SDC workers take over forklift operations from here on out. 

Wiping the rain from her eyes, she groaning beneath her breath as the deep ache in her arm throbbed, insistent and annoying. She clasped the flesh above the dock, wincing as she kneaded at the bunched muscles. Forklift dramas aside, the all-encompassing cold wasn't the best thing for her scar tissue, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it now. 

"An admirable save," a woman's voice said, from just inside the depot roller door. 

Yang froze, turning half a pace as she looked over her shoulder, watching the woman emerge from just within the warehouse. White suit, black shirt, red tie--the operative, Yang realised, her jaw clenching as she released her grasp on her dock, letting her arm fall to her side. 

Damurang approached her slowly, her hands clasped behind her back, the rain gathering quickly in her dark hair. 

_So much for keeping a low profile. Damnit._

Aloud, Yang told the woman, "If I hadn't, there wouldn't have exactly been a warehouse left to pay me for the work I've already done. Don't suppose you guys mind if I take a minute to settle my nerves, do you?" 

"But of course. We're not monsters, here." 

Damurang nodded to the forklift Yang had barely saved, now passing through the roller door with its new driver. Beyond, out in the rain and mud and surrounded by SDC guards, the driver who'd abandoned the load was on his knees, the side of his face bloody. One of the guards brought his rifle's stock across the back of the man's shoulders, and even from that distance, Yang could hear the blow's impact.

Reactive, Yang's fingers curled into fists, anger stoking the simmering coals in the pit of her stomach and bitterness rising like smoke in her mouth. Running had been a dumb idea, sure, but what the hell could _he_ have done? Without knowing how to use his aura, he'd have been caught in a blast there was no way he would have survived! Go faster, load more, who gives a damn about safety--as far as Yang was concerned, the only one to blame for the near miss was the SDC itself.

But what the hell could she do about it? The next blow sounded like it broke bone, and the quiet, empathetic hiss in her earpiece was a reminder that Ruby was listening in.

Yang forced herself to look away, to relax her fists, to do _nothing_. Her team was at the opposite end of the scale here, and as awful of a pill it was to swallow, she could not give her position up for him. She grasped at her dock, reminding herself to keep her cool--or she was going to snap and make things worse for her team. 

"Your arm. It bothers you?" Damurang asked, and if Yang hadn't just heard Weiss talk about _assassins_ and _saboteurs_ , she might have really bought the note of concern in the woman's voice. 

"Just some badly fitted hardware," Yang told her, the lie coming easily as she rolled her shoulder to make the point. "The connections can be a little dodgy. Gives me pins and needles like crazy sometimes, you know?"

"Of course. Such equipment can be troublesome when not properly cared for." Damurang paused, and Yang followed the direction of her gaze--was she scanning the rooftops? Before Yang could think on it further, Damurang smiled. "You have admirable reflexes, despite your connection problems. Atlesian military-grade hardware, too, unless I'm very much mistaken."

Yang let her arm fall back to her side, and suspicious, she asked, "What's that supposed to mean?" 

"Merely that Doctor Polendina's goods aren't normally so sloppy." Damurang's smile gained a dangerous edge, then. "Nor is he one to simply hand out his technology to... charity cases."

"You know, it's really none of your business where I got it," Yang snapped back, zero to a hundred in an instant. She was half a breath from showing this _operative_ exactly how well this _charity case_ used the prosthetic, and then--

 _"Yang,"_ Ruby breathed in her earpiece, and Yang recognised the implied request to de-escalate. Even so, even for Ruby, even with these stakes and knowing for sure the operative was seeking a reaction... Swallowing her anger was almost physically painful. 

_Atlesian mind games,_ she reminded herself, disgusted that she even had to play along. 

She inhaled, long and low. By the time she answered, her voice was cool--even if her temper was not. "If a little malfunctioning hardware is all you're interested in, I'd like to get back to doing my job. Thanks for the break."

She turned her back on the operative, her boots squelching in the muddied grass. Even away from Damurang's open examination, her mocking smile and testing questions, she still couldn't relax, her anger bubbling like magma beneath hair-thin control. Above her, lightning fractured the night sky, and the rain growing suffocatingly heavy. 

_"That was close,"_ Ruby said, once Yang had put enough distance between herself and the operative. _"What was all that?"_

"A warning," Yang replied, barely daring to lift her voice above a murmur. "She's got her eye on me. There's only one reason I was allowed to walk away from that interrogation. She wants to see what I do next."

_"But you've done nothing wrong!"_

"Yet," Yang corrected, and to lighten her sister's mood, she flashed a crooked grin toward where she knew Ruby watched over her with her sniper. "Honestly? I gotta admire those instincts."

 _"I guess."_ Ruby's voice was soft and reluctant, and she sighed. _"But Yang? Be careful. I only have one sister."_

"You know it," Yang replied. Her smile fading, she shifted her shoulders, far too aware of the insistent prickle in her aura. She didn't need to look back to know that Damurang still watched her.

###

Blake caught the security guard's blade on her cleaver, sparks flying as the edge caught on serrated metal. She didn't waste time setting her block, already twisting in a tight, vertical tumble, a shadow lingering to occupy his attention while she pressed her advantage from above. 

Her spinning kick glanced off her attacker's helmet, earning her just a grunt. She darted beneath his retaliation--a wide, arcing slice of his blade--leaving another decoy to sweep at his feet while she pivoted behind him. The guard staggered as he hit nothing but air, groaning beneath his breath, struggling to track the real Blake amongst her shadows. 

She caught his next slash against her cleaver again, grunting as the solid block jarred up her arms. White light bloomed, just behind her, and Blake left a shadow to cover her retreat for the glyph. It propelled her upward, and she twisted into into a descending whirlwind strike. 

The flat of the cleaver caught the side of the guard's helmet, knocking it free. Firing a trio of shots, Blake used the recoil to reverse her spin. Her shin smashed back into the guard's jaw, sending him crashing to the ground. 

Blake pivoted to cover Weiss from the last of the guards, the pommel of a hidden throwing knife heavy in the palm of her hands--right as she watched Weiss ricochet him off a couple of dizzyingly fast glyphs, and directly into her waiting punch. 

He slumped to the security room floor, and as Blake knelt by the two guards to fasten their hands and feet with zipties from her pocket, she glanced back to her teammate. Weiss flexed her fingers inside her leather glove, massaging her knuckles with an irritable expression before she put two fingers to her earpiece to activate her mic. 

"Ruby, we've reached the security room," Weiss said, flat and terse. She crossed to one of four main back-to-back consoles in the centre of the room, her features lit up in their vivid blue light. 

There were just a few moments before Ruby tuned back into the main channel. _"Any more trouble?"_

Weiss snorted beneath her breath, looking back to Blake with the ghost of a smirk on her lips. "Nothing we weren't able to solve on our own." 

_"Good, because that operative might know something's up,"_ Ruby said, and despite the obvious severity of the situation, to Blake's ear, her tone was one of genuine optimism. _"Yang says she's got it handled, and I know she does, but I'll be watching her back for a while. I'll keep you guys updated if anything happens."_

"Thank you," Weiss said, a small smile on her lips before the line went quiet once again. Looking to Blake, Weiss' smile faded as she continued, "If you're done with the guards, I've got executive passwords that should work. You can scan for any recent reports on Lawson's crew while I work with the archived footage from the past week." 

"Agreed." Blake watched Weiss tap in a convoluted password, and after a moment, she followed suit on the console opposite. Humming beneath her breath as she tried, "So Ruby seems... upbeat."

"It's nice to see her more like her old self," Weiss agreed, before she paused, shooting Blake a suspicious look. "Why?"

Blake shrugged, content to concede the tactless remark for what it was. "Perhaps I was wondering what you told her this afternoon." 

Turning her attention back to her search of the security footage, Weiss waved an irritable hand. "Nothing she hadn't mostly figured out."

"I see." Blake let the words hang between them for a long moment, tapping a few keys to bring up some of the more recent SDC files accessed and letting the list begin to populate. She glanced back to Weiss as she ventured, "So you didn't talk about your devastating crush on her? Of course you didn't."

"Oh, would you stop it?" Weiss snapped, slamming the palm of her hand to the metal top of the security console. Blake didn't flinch. "If I wanted your advice about Ruby, I'd ask for it. And let me be clear--I am not asking for it, nor am I planning on telling her _anything_ about it soon."

"The reason being?" Blake asked, unconvinced. Given how obviously the two of them had been flirting since the start of the SDC mission--god, not to mention for the whole of the Mantle mission so far--Weiss' continuing refusal to concede the attraction beggared belief. 

"How about we start with the obvious--I'm facing criminal charges and I'm not an asshole."

"Debatable, and let's not pretend there won't be some other convenient excuse when things resolve themselves with the SDC." Blake held up a hand as Weiss opened her mouth to argue the point. "Weiss, I've watched you avoid this conversation with her for at least _three years_ now. First, you weren't sure how you felt. Fine. Then you decided that the war came first and made the decision that Ruby shouldn't be distracted, then it was taking down your father, and now--"

"What, exactly, do you want?" Weiss' words practically dripped derision. "A full on confession to Ruby about my feelings for her, right as they lead me off in handcuffs?"

"With over-wrought pledges of everlasting love, if that's not too much to ask," Blake finished for her, deadpan. She shook her head as Weiss scoffed, continuing, "Tasteless theatrics aside, you could always try enjoying your last few days of freedom, instead of subjecting Yang and myself to this... masochistic mix of flirting and pining."

"'Pining'?" Weiss bristled, glaring across at Blake. "It's under _control_." 

Since her conversation with Ruby at the store, the whole situation had increasingly weighed on Blake's mind. Ruby had felt locked out of decisions, out of the team--that much she'd freely admitted to Blake. In the quiet words Blake had then exchanged with Yang, she knew Ruby's frustration ran incredibly deep. 

"I'm just saying that maybe your feelings aren't the only ones you should be giving weight, because I think she'd want to know and make her own choice, _considering_ how she feels about you." Blake looked away from Weiss, uncomfortable, occupying herself with the list of documents on her console's screen. "Ruby's feelings matter, and you can't simply keep her in the dark because you believe you know what's best for her."

"Of course her feelings _matter_." Weiss clicked her tongue, and Blake couldn't be sure if her friend was going to rally her stubbornness or relent--and then she leaned her palms on the security console, looking at the roof with a soft sigh. "She just--makes it so difficult to keep at arms length. She always has."

Blake didn't reply, staring at the SDC documents for a moment without really seeing, mulling over the answer. Weiss didn't look willing to tolerate any further prodding, her attention solely on the task at hand, so that avenue was out.

A thought striking her, Blake moved her first search to the background, instead pulling up the database to run another. She'd had a few key terms in mind since she'd learned of Weiss' situation, and the executive override meant that there was almost nothing that Blake wouldn't be able to access. 

Contracts, meeting minutes and corporate memorandums began to populate her screen. Cautious, Blake leaned around the console, checking Weiss was still occupied, before selecting one of the contracts dated during their year at Beacon. 

The document seemed straightforward enough--some sort of low-grade Dust supply deal with a variety of Mantle shop fronts--but the sale price was practically daylight robbery. Blake scrolled down to the last page, noting the signatures and the date.

 _Jacques, Weiss and... Carmine, on the same equinox Weiss went home to Atlas before the Vytal Festival. She'd have easily been able to attend this meeting._ Blake clicked her tongue. _Strike one._

The minutes of the meeting attached detailed, with impressive, _exhaustive_ detail, the negotiation between the SDC heiress and the panel of Mantle representatives--individuals Blake knew from her White Fang days were tied to organised crime in Solitas. 

_Money-laundering._ Blake wanted to groan. _Strike two. Weiss, you really are in trouble._

The ease at which she'd even found the files in the first place was a message--they were intended to be found, first by Weiss, and then by subsequent investigation by the corruption watchdog. 

At a first glance, if the documents were forgeries, they were good ones. Here and now, though, it was impossible to be certain, and Blake was far from an expert. She cast another glance to Weiss, just to be sure, before discreetly inserting a spare scroll chip into one of the console's main ports.

She'd have one of her old contacts look over the documents--perhaps they'd find something new to help Weiss fight Jacques on a more even footing. 

Flicking back to her original search before Weiss could check she was on-task, Blake scrolled through the list. Just the usual access to personnel files, shipping manifests, Dust refinement protocols--

She paused, scrolling back to the top to the most recent set of personnel files accessed--a set of four, their identifications generic. Blake's stomach twisted in sick certainty, and she selected the first one. 

Lawson's Dust scarred visage flickered up on screen, and scanning the file details, Blake felt her eyebrows climb.

"Weiss," she hissed, leaning around the console and waving to catch her teammate's attention. "Lawson's team's SDC personnel files." 

"Every contractor gets one when they start." Weiss shrugged, her eyes still on her own screen and clearly not understanding the significance. "Vetting. Risk assessment, investigation into personal history, education, tournament rankings, successful to unsuccessful mission ratio--"

"And then whoever reviews the file flags undesirable traits. Yes, I know how profiling works. You really need to take a look at this."

Weiss sighed but didn't argue the point, pushing herself away from where she'd been hunched over week-old security footage and rounding the console to Blake's screen. Her expression grew icy as she read, the devil in the detail clicking into place. 

"That's--" Weiss tried, her swallow far too loud in the security office's quietness. 

"Shady."

"I was going to go with 'unorthodox', but I agree." Weiss reached out, taking command of the console as she flicked between the four files that had practically fallen into Blake's lap. "There are flags all over this. Low graduation marks, barely a handful of sponsored missions completed, and look--all of them had known criminal associates in Vale. Stratworth and Yaaj had _blood ties_ with Torchwick! Literally any of these things should have been enough to kill Lawson's chances of winning the contract. This is impossible."

"But they did," Blake pointed out, because 'impossible' didn't help them understand what had happened to the missing team. "So the question is--how? What would have made the SDC relax their standards to the point where they hired _Lawson_?"

"This..." Weiss trailed off, her fingers racing across the console, dragging up another document from some corner of the archive--again with a recently accessed timestamp. "This is the contract signed by Lawson's team accepting the job. Approved by the Mantle hunting authority as _recommended_."

"The dates don't make sense," Blake said, quiet as she pointed to the date accompanying the signatures at bottom of the contract. "This was signed before the SDC's risk assessment was even started. Somebody was very certain the recommendation would go through."

"The contract's approving manager for SDC matters was Geoffrey Rosso." Weiss shook her head at Blake's questioning look, resting a hand on her hip. "Just your standard middle manager with an aggressive inferiority complex. I recall him from a charity dinner and silent auction the company held for Mantle in the months before things with Salem... worsened."

Blake hummed beneath her breath, thoughtful. "If you had to, do you think you could pick his face out from a crowd?"

"Handlebar moustache," Weiss replied without missing a beat, rolling her eyes at Blake for good measure. "For some reason, my father's associates seem hellbent on imitation as flattery."

Amused but unsurprised by the thought of particularly ambitious SDC employees carefully cultivating Jacques' distinctive facial hair, Blake snorted and unmuted her mic. 

"Ruby, we haven't found the footage yet, but you may be interested in something else."

 _"Finally! I'm all ears!"_ Ruby's voice practically crackled with eagerness. Blake did feel some sympathy, and Weiss was probably right--alone as Ruby was on her rooftop, she was probably going crazy waiting for news.

"We've found a copy of the contract Lawson's team signed," Blake told her. "Interestingly enough, it was authorised by both the hunting authority and the depot management, long before risk assessment." 

"This whole _mission_ seems to have been a sham, right from the start. The real contract Lawson's team was on wasn't a security detail--it was Mantle-approved theft," Weiss added, the set of her jaw tense. "We've theorised that there might have been insider assistance for the Dust heists, but this practically confirms it." 

"Mantle contracted Lawson, probably to steal Dust, and to make things run more smoothly, they offer a cut to a greedy manager with..." Blake paused, looking to her teammate with a growing smile. "How did you put it again, Weiss?"

Weiss sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, and the look she shared with Blake was a tired one. "An aggressive inferiority complex, I believe."

Ruby snickered, predictably delighted to listen to Weiss' vitriol being used on deserving targets for a change, and Weiss' mouth curled up in a tiny, reluctant smile at the reaction. 

_Completely 'under control', of course,_ Blake thought, both fond of and exasperated by her stubborn teammate all at once. 

_"Don't those Dust thefts predate Lawson's gang by a few months, though?"_ Ruby said finally, and Blake could practically hear the gears turning in her head as she considered the puzzle dumped before them. _"So... maybe Mantle has been running this operation for a while."_

Weiss looked thoughtful, nodding to herself as she told Ruby, "Blake will send you through what she found. Maybe Yang can help me make better sense of it--she was the one who looked through victim backgrounds. Perhaps the SDC is the connection between them after all."

_"Right. Awesome work so far, but we're gonna need more. Keep me updated?"_

"As always," Blake replied dutifully, before muting the mic again. Turning to Weiss, she asked, "How far along were you with the footage?"

"The security feed for the past week was retained, as expected, but I haven't been able to locate any presence of the victims. At all."

Blake frowned. "Not even on days they should have been around for deliveries?"

Weiss shook her head. "Nothing."

"That stretches probability rather impressively," Blake said, rounding the console to Weiss' side. "How often did the contract say they needed to be onsite?" 

"Every delivery. The manifest says that prior to tonight's bumper delivery, it was..." Weiss trailed off, her eyes darting as she scanned the document, her mouth tightening. "Three nights ago. The night before Lawson turned up dead."

"And the night before we arrived in Mantle," Blake told her. Tension coiled between her shoulder blades, ages old fight-or-flight instincts stirring. "Check the feed for that time--they should be there, pulling off their next big score." 

Weiss didn't protest as Blake adjusted the feed to show the distributions sector on the target date. Silent, they watched the timestamp in the corner tick over--until it the footage shuddered, skipping ahead several hours. There were no trucks anymore, no employees. Just an empty warehouse. 

"Different from the spycam at Lawson's warehouse," Blake ventured, and she understood exactly what was going on. "This... this isn't from a Grimm." 

"Because they've erased the feed. Poorly, I might add." Weiss' lip curled, cold fury in set of her jaw. "I believe we may have uncovered a stop-gap solution, before the SDC's technicians could doctor the footage more cleanly."

Blake brought up the list of security passes logged on the day Lawson died. This--this was just getting worse and worse, and she'd long since thought herself entirely jaded about the SDC's iron grasp on its monopoly. 

"There's even a wiped out system login from two keycards--ones that no longer have an ID associated with them, and both of them on the day Lawson's team was attacked. How do you like our chances that these once belonged to Yaaj and Raines, and are being reassigned to someone willing to lie for a hefty bonus?"

Weiss didn't reply, reaching up to unmute her scroll mic again. "Ruby, the feed's gone missing, and there's evidence that the SDC is erasing the association with Lawson's crew entirely. Rewriting history."

 _"What?! But why?"_ Ruby demanded. Beneath her surprise, her anger was a palpable thing, and Blake could hardly blame her. _"Why bother hiding it at all? What could they possibly stand to gain?!"_

"The operative, the missing footage, the recent access of Lawson's gang records," Blake said, ticking each of them off on a finger. "Something happened here that the SDC are intending to sweep under the rug, and I think we've caught them in the act--"

 _"Security room, do you copy?"_ a woman asked, crackling from the radio on one of the guard's belts. Blake recognised the voice immediately--the operative. _"Please respond."_

Weiss cursed, staring at the guard and looking ready to launch him right through the wall, and Blake own stomach felt like it plummeted a dozen storeys. 

_"Something tells me that's not good news,"_ Ruby said. Blake didn't respond immediately, moving to kneel by the unconscious security guard and plucking the radio from his belt. 

"The operative is trying to get in contact with the guards, who are currently... indisposed." Blake laughed, dry and soft as a thought struck her. "And no, before you ask, I'm not sure either of us can convincingly imitate cockney drawl at short notice."

 _"But I'd pay some serious lien to hear both of you try,"_ Yang said, because of course she'd risk everything just to comment on that. Despite herself, Blake smiled. 

_"Yang--"_ Ruby cut off, inhaling sharply as though reconsidering her choice of words very carefully. _"Just be serious for a moment."_

_"Fine. Here's my serious take on the issue. We've put everything on the line for this, so we can't just walk away with nothing. So, I say we go with Plan C."_

"You said the operative had her eye on Yang," Weiss growled, and she cast a fleeting, worried look in Blake's direction. "This is idiocy--"

 _"But exactly the kind of idiocy that's going to buy you two a little more time."_ Ruby was silent for a long moment, before finally, she sighed, her frustration bleeding through even over the rapidly degrading connection. _"If you're right about the cover-up, if you're right about the operative, then... there has to be something here. Something they're protecting. We need that information."_

"Ruby--"

 _"Weiss, Yang and I are the backup plan for a reason."_ Ruby's tone was certain, despite the static, and it was hard not to feel an echo of her optimism. Blake wondered--how hard was Ruby trying to keep her smile strong? _"Me and Yang... we'll take care of it. Just get the intel we need on Lawson's team. But--you really need to hurry. Time is really, really not on our side."_

###

Yang really wished she was surprised by their mission going south, but at this point? Corruption in Mantle was practically a guarantee, SDC involvement or not. But if Blake and Weiss needed extra time, then she needed to find a way to distract the operative--and fast. 

The back of her neck prickled, her aura stirring in reactive defence as she escorted the forklift back toward the depot. Squinting through the sodden mat of her bangs, she cast a fleeting look toward the roller doors.

Since the 'interrogation', Damurang had lingered outside distributions, her gaze like a physical weight on Yang's shoulders as she'd worked. She probably had Yang pegged as a member of the Dust-theft ring, and if the situation hadn't sucked so badly, Yang would have bust a rib laughing. If only she damn well _knew._

"Any bright ideas?" she asked Ruby, tugging her hood back down to shield her eyes from the haze of rain, her lips barely moving. As she approached the operative's position, she dropped her gaze to the forklift's load, trying to ignore the urge to challenge the woman's stare with a glare of her own, to give in to the growing burn of adrenaline in her veins.

 _"Nothing that doesn't involve so many explosions,"_ Ruby replied with a low groan. 

Yang didn't reply immediately, silent as the operative's gaze tracked her path through the roller doors and into distributions. The inside of the sector was just as cold as outside, but while the air was almost choking with exhaust fumes from the rows of waiting trucks, at least it was out of the storm. Around her, groups of workers scrambled to load the crates onto their transports as fast as they could manage. 

The forklift Yang was escorting shuddered to a stop beside the next truck in line, depositing the load of crates onto the ground, she began to work at unfastening the buckles securing it together. 

Disgusted and so totally _done_ with the games, Yang growled beneath her breath, "Your idea is better than mine. I'm tempted to just walk up and put that asshole right through the cement wall. See who's the "charity case" then."

Predictably, Ruby wasn't a fan. _"Yang, she's dangerous!"_

"No more dangerous than the goliath we took out today!" Yang countered, wiping at her face with a frustrated hand. "Just. Think about it, Rubes. She's already got her eye on me. If I feed that attention, then she'll have her mind on me, not Blake and Weiss--"

Yang cut off as yelling erupted from one of the nearby trucks, and grimacing, she leaned around the departing forklift. Half a dozen guards--way, _way_ too many for any task, honestly--surrounded a guy at the rear of the vehicle. From the looks of things, he'd been stuck trying to load the cargo on his own. A tough ask for anyone with aura and training, and nigh impossible for anyone without it. 

Over the growl of engines, Yang could make out a cacophony of disjointed heckling, and she felt herself do a double-take. Were they really yelling at the poor guy for not moving fast enough? Especially after they'd already had _one_ near miss that Yang had barely prevented?

Her anger simmered hotter at the argument grew louder, her grasp on the cargo straps tightening dangerously. She exhaled, a touch of fire to her breath. She had to prioritise, she had to--

_"Yang, we need to hurry. She's giving orders to a trio of guards now, and I'm pretty sure it's about the security room!"_

"Damnit, there's no more time." Yang looked toward the guy, still arguing with the guards and god, it was going to go to blows if someone didn't step in. Yang tossed the strap back down against the crate, the metal buckle crumpled and broken. 

"Hey!" Yang called out, stepping around the cargo, her aura sizzling beneath her skin. "What the heck is going _on_ over there? Leave the guy alone to do his job!"

Only one of the guards bothered to spare her a look, resting his submachine gun on his shoulder. "Get back to work, blondie. This doesn't concern you."

"With you making all this noise? For, what, this guy taking the care to make sure we don't get blown sky high?" Yang's gaze flickered between the guards and the worker. Her lips thinned, her hands curling into fists and her knuckles cracking a warning. "Wow, what a crime. It's not like I've had to save your asses from fiery death already."

"Speed is a part of the deal, darl," another guard said, his words a sneer as he pulled his gun from his back. Yang wanted to laugh--did he really think that was intimidating? "We're just reiterating the terms of contract. If you don't like 'em, then maybe our problem is with you."

"Funny. Don't remember signing anything on our way in," Yang replied, still advancing slowly, her pulse picking up in her ears. 

One by one, the guards finally looked to her, the worker forgotten behind them. She shot the guy a warning look, hoping he got the message. The guy was smart, sensing the brewing storm--he backed away from the guards, scrambling back toward the loading yard. 

Satisfied, Yang returned her attention to the guards, the lot of them finally starting to take her seriously as they began to draw their weapons. She lifted her chin, daring them to strike first, their shouts for her to _back off_ and _stand down_ bouncing off without effect. 

"You know what?" Yang asked them then, spreading her hands with a crooked smile. "I'm not sure I'm satisfied the current terms of the contract anyway. How about we-- _renegotiate_!"

Ember Celica activating in the space of an instant, Yang slammed her fist into the nearest guard's armoured chest. The force of the blow sent him flying, crashing through the side of the half-empty truck behind him, the plastic tarp shredding beneath his weight. 

There was a long moment of silence as Yang listened to him skid and bounce over the depot's concrete floor, before finally hitting the far wall. Her smile widened at the metal hiss of swords being drawn, the sound of bullets being chambered around her.

"On your knees!" the first guard roared, and Yang tilted her head his way.

"Hey now, watch where you're pointing those peashooters, huh? With guns like these, I might get offended you boys aren't taking me seriously!" 

Yang flashed forward as the guard opened fire, deflecting the wild spray of bullets with a turn of her gauntlet and closing the distance with a lunge. He panicked, trying to back up, as she pivoted beneath his gun. Her brutal backfist hit his ribs, the force of the blow knocking the air from his lungs. 

He crumpled to the ground, his submachine gun clattering from his hands as he clutched at his chest, gasping for air. 

Her aura sparked warning, and Yang sidestepped the next guard's sword slash, turning the strike harmlessly to the side with her metal arm and juking another guard's baton strike. She caught the baton on Ember Celica, sparing the guard a wink as he strained against her strength--before disarming him with a twist of his baton so violent it went flying. 

Yang yanked him forward, hurling him with a spin into where the guard with the sword was running for her. They both crashed back into the truck, neither of them rising to challenge her again. 

"And then there were two," Yang announced, satisfied, advancing on the final two guards as they began to back away. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught movement from the far side of distributions--reinforcements running for her position. Yang cracked her neck, left and then right, before propelling herself forward with a blast from Ember Celica and smashing her fist into the nearest guard's gut. He _flew,_ collecting the guard just a pace behind him, the two of them crashing into the reinforcements and scattering them like leaves in the fall. 

Her blood pounding an addictive tempo in her ears, Yang scanned the warehouse interior for the operative. So far, there'd just been the usual generic SDC thugs, no automatons, and certainly no sign of any highly-trained corporate assassin. 

_Guess I gotta step it up,_ Yang thought, and with the SDC, she couldn't say she minded a bit of blood and broken bone. 

She sprinted to meet the next guard, skidding low at the very last moment to slide beneath the heavy slash of a zweihander. She juked behind him with another blast from her gauntlet, chambering a kick to the back of his knee and smashing her fist into the side of his head. 

The guard howled in agony, his aura breaking, and beyond him, Yang saw a trio of guards taking aim. She hurled the guard to the side, zigzagging the machine gun fire with recoil from Ember Celica, closing the distance at break-neck speed before launching herself high into the air. 

She slammed her fist to the ground between them, fire scorching out as the concrete fractured beneath her strike, the guards thrown like ragdolls by the quake. Breathless, she scanned the warehouse again--more guards were coming, a whole group of them clustering around one of the transport trucks. 

Yang dodged the next spray of gunfire, the bullets sizzling off her aura as she skidded behind another truck. Panting, she grasped her prosthetic wrist, switching up the settings with a twist--shotgun to grenade, or as she liked to call it, _the Valkyrie Delivery._

She rolled back out into the open, hitting the ground running, weaving and twisting her way through two guards trying to double-team her with swords and blasting them back with Ember Celica for their troubles. Extending her prosthetic, she twisted her mechanised wrist again to chamber the shot. 

Her grenade missed the guards as they split in a panic--but hit the front of the truck behind them. Yang had just enough time to smirk, saluting the guards with two fingers, before it detonated. The Dust-powered engine erupted into a gout of flame, and Yang skidded backwards from the blast, her ears ringing.

Beyond the partial deafness, Yang heard the _crack_ of short-range teleportation.

 _Finally._

She didn't pivot, didn't block, didn't brace herself--she simply forcing herself to eat the full force of Damurang's blow. Her aura sparked gold in her eyes as she hit the depot wall at a speed _Ruby_ would have envied, and as she fell to the concrete floor, she tasted the iron tang of blood at the back of her mouth. 

Groaning, Yang pushed herself to her knees, the pain genuine but the exhaustion pure fiction, her semblance surging like a wildfire beneath her skin, licking like flame at the tinder of her control. There was nothing she wanted more than to get back up, to test herself against the operative, but--

 _This isn't about you, Xiao Long,_ she told herself, forcing her semblance to ebb back down. She looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps. _For Team RWBY._

Damurang's expression was cold as she looked Yang over, shaking her head as if sorely disappointed. 

"I'd rather hoped I was wrong about you," she said, and as Yang tried to lift Ember Celica, she brought her foot down on Yang's hand. 

Yang bared her teeth in a hiss of pain. 

"Disarm her, and ensure sure she's properly bound--pay careful attention to her prosthetic. Polendina's work is often full of nasty surprises, and I won't be caught off-guard again." 

_We'll see about that,_ Yang thought, allowing a pair of guards to seize her by the arms. 

Even knowing this was her choice, she still had to fight down a possessive growl when they began to twist Ember Celica off her wrists. She could do this. She _had_ to do this. Her gauntlets finally coming free, she spat blood to the concrete, disgusted. 

"You'll talk soon enough. Dust thieves always do," the operative told her. Turning to another particularly scorched-looking guard, she snapped, "And for god's sake, somebody find out what happened to the automated defence system, or I assure you. Heads will roll."

Yang let the guards haul her to her feet, pretending to sag and sway from exhaustion. 

_All a part of the plan,_ she told herself again. She just hoped to god Ruby, Blake and Weiss could figure out the SDC connection before the operative figured out she was being played instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, Yang. I'm not sure you really needed to pick a fight with the whole warehouse to distract the operative, but... you do you, I guess?
> 
> Sincerest apologies for the delay in posting this! I ended up being a lot more burned  
> out by chapters 6-10 than I realised, so I ended up taking a few months off to chill. 
> 
> Thanks for your support, all! :D


	13. Hell in a Handbasket

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team RWBY continues the investigation into the SDC connection. Damurang proves herself to be far more trouble than any of them bargained for, but she's far from the only danger watching the team from the shadows.

The sound of gunfire and furious combat went suddenly, terrifyingly silent in Ruby's earpiece. 

"No, no, no, _no_ \--" Ruby cut off, scoping back in on the depot's roller door. The angle of her sniper's nest was all wrong--she couldn't see anything out here, let alone watch her sister's back! "Yang, please say something! Anything!"

Ruby's stomach churned. Despite her plea, there was no attempt at reassurance so typical of Yang, no encouragement--nothing. Yang's feed remained silent, punctuated with the buzz of the storm-degraded connection. Ruby tore her gaze away from her scope with what felt like monumental effort, frantically looking back to her scroll. 

Yang's winking portrait in the group call had grown dim. As Ruby looked on, her pulse thundering in her ears, it finally dropped entirely. 

Ruby's exhale was strangled, the escalating tightness in her chest only growing tighter. Up here, alone on a stupid rooftop and away from her team--she felt _useless_! Overwatch had been needed, she'd told herself back at the apartment. The team had needed someone to run point, someone to call the shots.

Now Yang was in trouble, Weiss and Blake would doubtless be next, and what was Ruby doing about it?

She couldn't think, her thoughts seeming to blur together in a terrified loop of _what if_ , insistently threatening to spin out of control as she struggled to shove together a plan. 

Like an old, aching scar, the fear had made itself known when Weiss had told the team about the operative. Ruby had tried to shrug off the too-familiar echo of worry--for them, she'd tried to stay positive, to just find a way around Damurang. But the feeling of inescapable dread had only worsened as the mission proceeded, rising up in her chest like the flooding of a cavern, threatening to drown her. Just as it had last night. 

Folding Crescent Rose up and sliding it back into its harness, Ruby climbed to her feet. She approached the edge of the rooftop slowly, her hood drawn up against the wind-driven rain, looking out over the warehouse, chewing at her lower lip as she considered. 

It was a conflict as old as her leadership itself--the often vast difference between what she _knew_ she should do, and what she _felt_ she should do. 

She knew Weiss and Blake were counting on her to be their leader. She knew she was leaving her teammates in a bad place. They'd need to find a path forward without her help. 

Ruby just couldn't bear to sit by when she _knew_ she could make a difference. She hadn't stood for it back at Beacon, nor with Salem. She wasn't about to start now, when it was her team on the line. 

The SDC warehouse, the layout of its yards, the pattern of its guards and the spots where she could hide unnoticed--Ruby had been studying it all so long it felt branded behind her eyelids by the overexposed floodlights. 

She could do this. 

Her semblance surged in her blood, sparking so sharp she could taste sudden static in the roof of her mouth. As thunder split the storm clouds overhead, she streaked off across empty, broken rooftops and parapets. The edge of the next warehouse loomed dark and jagged--she didn't hesitate, trusting her instincts and plunging off the side. She barely caught her fall on a length of rusted, exposed rebar, only to swing herself forward even faster.

Arcing through the air, Ruby hit the ground running at an unbelievable speed. The world slowed, all sound fading in a rush of wind and the scent of rose petals.

###

Yang hit the concrete wall _hard._ With her arms bound behind her back, it was only her aura--already low and sparking yellow beneath her eyelids--that kept the wind from being knocked from her lungs. She bit down on her tongue to stifle the flash of anger that followed, forcing herself to stay loose and pliant when the guard reached down again. 

She sagged into him, a deliberate groan slipping free when he hauled her back up by her jacket's fleecy collar. His dark visor was featureless and mirrored, and Yang caught fleeting glance of her bloodied lip and blackening eye before he slammed her back again. 

Blake was not going to be happy with her.

Yang bared her teeth, her words forced out between them, "Hey, ease up there a bit--"

"You broke my friend's _leg_ ," he snarled, voice digitised and distorted by his helmet comm. Yang blinked, recognising his voice from the first set of guards she'd made an example of. He leaned in close, his gauntlets closing about Yang's throat, tight enough to raise bruises. "I'm thinking I might break something of _yours--_ "

"Enough, Crux." 

Wheezing, Yang looked over his shoulder. Damurang closed the heavy door behind her with a quiet click. She approached them with slow, even strides, her hands clasped behind her back, her glossy dark hair gleaming beneath the buzzing lights. 

Despite the order, the guard's hold on Yang's throat tightened. "Ma'am--"

" _Perhaps,_ " Damurang said, the word sharp enough to echo throughout the vast storage room, "If Lomar hadn't simply sprinted at an armed huntress with all the intelligence of a charging boarbatusk, he'd not be preparing for his long stay at Atlas General. Release our guest, or you'll be joining him." 

"Yes, ma'am." The guard's hold loosened, and he shoved Yang back against the wall. 

Air returned to Yang's lungs in a rush, and she inhaled through clenched teeth. She was dying to be done with the acting, and reflexively, she tested the heavy cuffs the guards had slapped on her. 

At the steady, approaching _click_ of the operative's heels on the scrubbed concrete, Yang looked up. 

"Funny. I thought you'd have given up on the good cop act," she said.

Damurang ignored her, her attention on Crux. 

"Send instructions to units five through nineteen--they're to clear the remaining civilians and staff from the premises. There will be no further shipments tonight." As the guard joined the squad of three by the door, already growling his orders through a radio, Damurang finally looked down at Yang. Despite the quirk of her lips, her eyes held no warmth. "The company has far more pressing priorities."

"The SDC, stopping production for a lone huntress?" Yang answered Damurang's vicious smile with one of her own. "You know, I'd be flattered--if your attention didn't suck so much."

Stubborn, false bravado aside, she'd be feeling _so much better_ about a head-to-head fight with Damurang if the guards hadn't taken Ember Celica from her. Her gauntlets and scroll rested on a metal table toward the back of the supply room, so close to hand and yet so far. 

In a pinch, she could probably get to her weapon, darting between the piles of shrink-wrapped supply crates stacked around for cover, but... she looked back to Damurang, listening to the self-assured click of heels as the distance between them dwindled. 

"A 'lone huntress'," Damurang repeated with a huff Yang only belatedly realised was a laugh, her expression thoughtful--before she seized the front of Yang's jacket and slammed her hard into the wall again. She leaned close as Yang blinked the stars from her eyes. "A lone huntress who has injured and likely crippled close to a dozen of our security staff. An interestingly hypocritical contrast with your earlier... heroics."

Yang said nothing. She didn't flinch as she looked Damurang square in the eyes, daring her to continue, willing to let the operative fill in the blanks as she saw fit. Damurang's gaze narrowed, but she didn't rise to the bait. 

"Allow me to simplify the two choices before you," Damurang told her instead, releasing her hold on Yang's jacket to lace her hands behind her back once more. "Comply, and I will ensure you survive the night. Fail to do so, and whatever crew you're working with will need to scavenge your remains from the beowolves. Are we clear?"

Yang cast an eye toward the guards assembled at the door, all of them watching the show. Creeps. Sweetening her tone and looking back to Damurang, she replied, "Crystal." 

"Then you'd better talk fast."

"I don't really know what to tell you guys," Yang said, her smile widening a fraction even as Damurang's expression began to darken. She shrugged an expressive shoulder, determined to waste as much time as possible. "I'm just a poor schmuck looking for a bit of extra lien. Just got sick of being shoved around by assholes like tall, dark and power-tripping over there--"

"Your insistence on puerile comedy bores me, so allow us to deal in _facts._ " The word landed like an insult between them, and Yang felt a surge of grim satisfaction as Damurang turned away from her, all restless fury. "You arrived here at twenty two hundred hours, seemingly alone. You bribe your way into my warehouse with far, far more lien than you could ever be paid for your troubles. You even managed to avoid leaving a name."

"It's Mantle and this is an SDC job," Yang replied, because she sure as hell hadn't been the only one avoiding names and offering bribes at the gate. She laughed, short and sharp. "Like hell I'd want my real name associated with you scumbags--"

Damurang's backhand caught Yang off-guard, and she tasted fresh blood in her mouth, the painful fire in her cheek insistently stoking her semblance. _Chill out,_ she told it, forcing it down, storing its heat for later. 

"You'll remember your manners," Damurang told her, level and pleasant and not at all like her white glove now had blood smeared on the back of the knuckles. 

Yang tongued the fresh split in her lip, trying to ground herself with the added sting as she retorted, "Oh, so you want me to say 'please' when you're getting your kicks--"

Damurang moved like lightning, and it was only thanks to countless spar-sessions with Ruby that Yang was even able to track the momentum. She dodged the first strike with a jerk, blocking a hammerfist with her shin before pivoting beneath the next. The operative twisted, and the follow-through kick sent Yang crashing to the ground, her aura sparking as she skidded on her back across the concrete, before finally coming to a stop by Crux and his buddies. 

_Okay. She hits hard. Noted for later._

Yang's low exhale was laced with semblance fire, her hands clenching and unclenching behind her back as she listened to the sound of machine guns from the guards cocking. 

"Bring her to me."

Yang snarled as she was dragged up, a guard at each arm, until she was kneeling in the middle of the storage room, just a pace from where Damurang waited. She was pretty damn sure that asshole Crux had yanked out a good few strands of her hair. 

He was _so_ going to be in a world of pain when she was done here, and she growled, "Alright, buddy, _you're_ on my list--"

Yang's words froze in her throat at the kiss of cold metal against her pulse, and she looked back to where Damurang had taken a knee, a heavy, ornate handcannon in hand. 

"A huntress of your obvious talents surely knows what armour-piercing rounds do to aura at this range," Damurang told her. Her eyes narrowed a fraction, searching for something in Yang's expression. 

Yang swallowed, a dozen devil-may-care retorts at the tip of her tongue--right as she saw the heavy door beyond Damurang settle shut. Barely perceptible in the darkness, a few stray rose petals spiralled to the floor. 

_Ruby,_ Yang realised with a cold rush of panic that made her head spin. Ruby was here, in the goddamn storage room. _Ruby, you idiot, you're meant to be looking out for Blake and Weiss!_

Baiting Damurang, drawing out anger to distract her, straddling the line between _frustrating_ and _no longer useful_ \--that only worked when Yang had nothing to lose and nobody else to worry about. With Ruby here, listening to every word as she drove Damurang to the edge? With Ruby, who would _absolutely act_ on any genuine threat to Yang?

This mission was quickly going from salvagable to hell in a handbasket. Yang had to change up tactics--and fast. 

"This... this seemed like such a good plan," she admitted, her voice a little unsteady. It was far too easy to pretend she was afraid of Damurang's threat, and not just Ruby doing something monumentally stupid. "Get in, tag the vehicles, lie low. Let my crew set the ambush for the trucks when they departed."

"So you concede you're a part of the Dust theft operation?" 

"You had me figured out real quick, didn't you?" Yang countered, and her laugh was dry and flat. "Should have known things would go south when you showed."

Damurang's gaze was thoughtful, and lifting her free hand, she gestured to the warehouse around them. "So your... comrades. They aren't on-site, then?" 

"Not even one."

"And you're sure?" 

The gun at Yang's throat pressed harder to the hollow of her jaw, and she heard a metallic click--the sound of the hammer being cocked, impossibly loud in the silence. 

"I'd swear it on my life." Yang's smile was crooked, the lie coming easily no matter the threat. "I'm the only one here, because we're not that _dumb._ "

Damurang's expression was unreadable, and for a long moment, Yang was certain was going to end up shot anyway. Finally, Damurang nodded, withdrawing the gun. She rose to her feet, and suspicious, Yang watched her back away a few steps.

"It's quite interesting to watch, really," Damurang said, her voice echoing through the vast storage room, and she rested a gloved hand against the nearest pallet of shrink-wrapped crates. 

Yang swallowed the tidal wave of panic rising in her chest as she watched another few rose petals float down back into the shadows beyond the crates. Damurang didn't seem to notice them, turning her attention back to Yang. 

"You don't place value in your own life. Not when it hangs in balance with the lives of others--it was blatantly obvious from the way you practically threw yourself on a metaphorical grenade with the forklift. Your life, or that of a lowly Faunus or two?" Damurang's dark eyes sharpened then, a predator stalking her prey. "No. The threat of pain doesn't faze you, even in the face of death."

"What exactly are you saying here?" Yang demanded, and Crux's brutal hold on her flesh arm tightened in warning. She glared around at them, refusing to be shaken by Atlesian pseudo-psychology. She was only too glad to take the attention, if only it would prevent Damurang and her goons from realising they weren't alone. 

"Only that I'll hardly take you at your word when you say you swear on _your_ life," Damurang said with a shrug, reaching inside pocket of her suit jacket as she neared. 

Yang's jaw firmed, and silent, she watched Damurang draw out a scroll, unfolding it with a metallic snap. 

Sick of the depraved showmanship and mind games, Yang snarled, "Look, I don't care. You can either take my confession or leave it--"

"I want you to swear it on _theirs_ ," Damurang broke in, turning her scroll screen toward Yang and hitting a button with her thumb.

The footage was dark, but it was obviously a live feed from one of the depot's interior security cameras. As she watched, two figures raced into frame and sprinted down the hallway. Both wore black, their features concealed and blurred in the dark, but the way they moved--it was unmistakable. 

_Blake and Weiss._ Yang's stomach plummeted. Everything had been brought to a screaming halt, and for the first time in a very long while, she was entirely out of ideas. 

She'd been played this whole time. 

"No blithe commentary? Perhaps I should have led with this and saved myself the headache," Damurang told her, poisonously pleasant. She tapped her scroll, the feed switching to follow Blake and Weiss' next movements through the depot. "My men found their work in the security room, you see--they'd done quite a number on the staff, and then rummaged through our shipping manifests. All while I'd had my eye on you. Very puzzling, given the claim you're... alone."

Yang inhaled, her jaw setting, but she didn't dare look away from Blake, not until they'd finally vanished from frame. Damurang's threat couldn't be more clear, and a deep, reactive fury began to smoulder in her chest.

"If you touch them, I'll--"

"You'll _what_?" Damurang snapped the scroll shut with a twist of her wrist, and Yang couldn't help but flinch at the sound. Damurang's venomous smile was gone now, her expression impassive and all business. "You're in no position to either threaten or bargain. Tell me what I want, and I'll ensure they're captured... _mostly_ alive."

Yang glared at Damurang, biting down on her tongue to keep herself silent. She wouldn't just blow the mission, and it wasn't like she could just _give_ Damurang what she wanted, anyway. It was increasingly obvious she had no idea what information Damurang was working with. 

Her temper smouldered, her control fracturing at an alarming rate. What the hell was she going to do? She needed a plan, but nothing was coming to mind and Blake and Weiss were going to be the ones to pay for it. 

By the crates beyond the operative, more petals floated to the ground, pinwheeling in a breeze that shouldn't exist. 

Yang's determination steeled when she glared back at Damurang. She wasn't out of options--because Ruby had her back.

Damurang read her defiance correctly, and she clicked her tongue in disappointment as she rose to her feet. "I see. Crux, hold her steady. I wouldn't want her to miss the show."

Crux's twist of her arm grew more brutal, her flesh joints screaming. Right in front of her eyes, Damurang tapped a few buttons on her scroll. 

"Activate the automated defence system in sector two. Pursuant to this morning's security memorandum, the President has authorised lethal force. See to it the correct protocols have been activated." Damurang's eyes didn't flicker from Yang's, narrowing a fraction, and ending the broadcast, she said to Yang, "Just don't forget--what happens to your crew now was your choice."

Yang's control on her temper _shredded._

"You really, _really_ shouldn't have said that," Yang growled, and Crux's twist of her arm only fed her fire as she surged forward, pulling her guards with her and off-balance before hurling herself back. 

She crashed into them, sending them flying. She flipped forward to her feet, barely dodging Damurang's first shot. The explosive round's shrapnel sizzled against her aura as she darted back and away, moving fast to put distance and cover between between them. 

Yang skidded low as she sprinted for the nearest stack of pallets, but before Damurang could make her next shot, Yang heard a sniper's crack. The gun went spinning from Damurang's outstretched hand, and Yang turned just in time to see the red blur flashing into existence behind her. 

Damurang vanished in a crack of white light, Ruby's scythe passing harmlessly through the space she'd occupied a heartbeat before. Ruby pivoted, whirling her scythe behind her as she landed in a crouch between Yang and the guards. 

"Nice shot!" Yang called out, and trusting her sister's instincts entirely, she abandoned her own plan to make it to Ruby's side. "But you're an idiot, you know that? I totally had this handled."

Ruby cast her a fleeting, disgusted look, and Yang shrugged. Well, she had--right up until Damurang had pulled out the scroll feed, but Ruby? Ruby had _promised_ to stay on task, not go lone-wolfing without a word to anyone! 

Ruby's scythe blurred, deflecting gunfire with a sharp, metallic ricochet, and Yang tracked the origin to somewhere atop the stacks of crates. Crouched atop in the shadows, Damurang fired again, forcing Ruby to defend instead of taking the shot, before darting back through the towers of pallets and out of sight. Ruby growled beneath her breath, her scythe whirling as she instead sent the blade slicing through the heavy-duty cuffs around Yang's wrists. 

Gunfire peppered the ground, stinging off Yang's aura. Without a word exchanged, the two of them made a break for the table toward the back of the room. Skidding behind it, Yang threw it on its side for better cover. She pressed a hand to its underside, reinforcing the metal with aura to prevent those assholes from immediately shredding it. 

"'Handled'?" Ruby burst out finally, unbelieving. In the reprieve the cover granted them, she tossed Yang the gauntlets and scroll, all the while scanning the pallets for movement. "You call this handled?! You tried to fight the _whole warehouse_ without backup! And you're calling _me_ the idiot?!"

"Fine! We're both headstrong morons!" Yang flashed Ruby a grin, twisting Ember Celica back on with a satisfying click. "Guess it just runs in family, huh?" 

Ruby growled beneath her breath, but Yang caught the twitch of her smile as she turned. She fired a trio of shots, driving back one of the guards attempting a gutsy flank. Yang pressed her back to the table, craning her neck to see over the edge and scan the room. More guards were running for their position through the storage room door--

Abruptly, deep sirens sounded throughout the depot. Yang jerked, catching a flash of white at the storage room's heavy door--just as it swung shut. 

"She's tripped the alarm!" Yang said, and she ducked back behind cover before the guards could blow her head off. Behind them, the thin metal tabletop screeched with deflected gunfire, and damnit, it wasn't going to hold for much longer. 

Ruby worried at her lower lip as she assessed their options. She looked to Yang, her silver eyes sharpening. "She's gonna go for Weiss and Blake. We have to stop her!"

"Got it! One opening, coming _right up_!"

Yang released her aura's reinforcement of their cover, surging to her feet. Even as the metal shredded beneath concentrated gunfire, she knocked it into the air with a kick, drawing back a fist to slam it into the oncoming guards. Their teamwork was smooth as a well-oiled machine--Ruby seized her chance, using the high-speed cover to close the distance. She landed between the guards in a whirlwind of flashing red steel and rose petals, Yang following just behind the whip of her red cloak. 

Blood pounding and fire in her veins, Yang lunged for the guard Ruby missed--Crux, because maybe the universe was smiling after all. She dispensed show for brutal efficiency, Ember Celica shattering both aura and plate steel, sending him smashing right through the door in a shower of splinters, buckshot and swirling embers.

Crux didn't move, and Yang exhaled in a dry, satisfied huff. 

To her left, Ruby sprang into action, sprinting through the opening Yang had made and into the darkened warehouse beyond. The alarm still blared, a deep and guttural sound that set Yang's teeth on edge, the hall washed in pulsating red light. She growled beneath her breath, looking down toward where distributions lay, trying to get a handle on where Damurang had retreated to. 

"There!"

Yang looked sharply over her shoulder, but Ruby was already moving, a wild burst of petals trailing in her wake as she streaked down the hall. Swearing beneath her breath, Yang threw herself forward with a recoil blast from Ember Celica, taking the sharp turn down the hallway and pursing her sister. 

Damurang had a head start, true--but nobody was faster than Ruby. Yang cracked a proud smile as Ruby blasted past Damurang, skidding in front of her to block the path ahead, Crescent Rose snapping out and whirling behind her at the ready. Yang slowed to a jog as Damurang looked over her shoulder, her gaze narrowing as she assessed the odds. 

Right now, she should be looking worried, not calm. What sort of people was Jacques _hiring_?

"Two against one." Damurang snorted softly beneath her breath, drawing her heavy handcannon from the holster at the small of her back. She looked back to Yang, her smile sharp like a knife in the dark. "An unexpected move, for a Vale huntress." 

Yang's hands curled into fists so tight her knuckles cracked, and she couldn't keep the reactive spike of anger from her voice as she snarled, "You don't know me at _all_."

"Perhaps." Damurang gestured around her, to the array of blue panels lighting up all the way down the hallway. A warning tone sounded, the panels flickering from blue to red. "But a little situational awareness would go a long way, don't you think?"

Yang met Ruby's eyes as around them, automated security knights began to deploy. They both nodded, fleeting understanding passing between them. They had to stop Damurang here, no matter the cost.

###

Weiss barely caught the automaton's blade on her glyph, the force behind the strike driving her back a grudging step. Not for the first time, she internally cursed agreeing to leave Myrtenaster behind. _It's a stealth mission,_ Blake had told the team. _It'll be fine,_ Blake had promised. 

Weiss was _not_ going to let Blake live this disastrous misjudgement down--provided, of course, they both made it out of this warehouse alive.

She clenched her fist, releasing the remaining kinetic force stored in her glyph in a shockwave, sending the knight sparking across the cement. There was no time to catch her breath, another automaton lunging from her blindspot. She sidestepped, twisting to avoid its lightning-fast strikes, the plasma blades sizzling through the air and leaving trails of blue in its wake, again forcing Weiss to yield ground. 

Panting and only just turning aside the final thrust with a hasty glyph, Weiss ground out, "What have those two _boneheads_ done to our covert mission?!" 

"Whatever it was, there's no stuffing this geist back into its bottle." Blake darted toward Weiss, dismembered knights in her wake, her dual blades shredding the automaton straining down against Weiss' defences. The pieces of it rolled across the floor, sparking and sputtering. 

Taking advantage of the moment's reprieve, Weiss hit her mic. "Ruby?" Her only answer was the dull roar of static, and Weiss swore beneath her breath. This had been exactly what she and Yang had talked about, and frankly, she wanted to strangle Ruby the next they met. "She's still not responding!"

Blake's expression tightened, and she replied, "Then we fight our way through."

"To _where_?" 

Blake didn't reply, instead looking past Weiss and down the long, darkened hall. 

Beyond the wreckage of the knights they'd already finished, another dozen automatons appeared, bathed in crimson warning light. Weiss could practically pinpoint the moment the automatons registered them as intruders, the blue LEDs set into their glossy visors shifting to blaring red. 

They lunged down the hallway, springing forward with deadly, inhuman speed, and Weiss was certain she saw one of them crawl up the _wall._ She bit back another curse, flicking a hand. A dark repulser glyph span tight, blocking one drone mid-lunge, sending it crashing into the two behind it. 

Blake flashed past her, in two, three, four places at once as she whirled through the dozen drones, black steel flashing red and blue. Sparks flew, Blake cutting her way through the centre, and before the automatons could close rank around her, bury her in pure numbers, Weiss' hand shot out, two glyphs coalescing to cover her teammate's retreat. 

Taking the hint, Blake parted ways with the knights with a series of brutal cross-slashes that cut right through metal and reinforced joints. She flipped backwards, springing from glyph to glyph, an automaton's blade passing harmlessly through the shadow she left in her wake. 

Weiss barely had enough time to light another glyph on the wall--to set up Blake's next angle of attack--before she was forced to dodge. Blue plasma hissed in her ears as she pivoted and twisted away from the knight's rapid strikes--the last of which she was a shade too slow to dodge. The blade grazed her leather sleeve, scorching heat spreading through the loose cuff, and she growled. 

She summoned in less than a breath, a ghostly boarbatusk condensing and rushing forward, catching the automaton's twin blades on its tusks before hurling it with a crash into the wall. Breathless and blinking the sweat from her eyes, Weiss whirled, desperate to get her attention back on Blake, ensure her safety. A trio of glyphs lit up the narrow hall, and Blake sprang from wall to wall, returning to her side in a crouch. 

"There's more of them coming," Blake told her, and to Weiss' ears she sounded winded. Gambol Shroud shifted, and Blake fired several shots into the crowd of advancing knights, scattering their advance. Her tone growing exasperated, she asked, "Did these things really need an upgrade?" 

Flicking a hand to repel the next wave of knights with a concussive glyph, Weiss couldn't resist casting Blake a smirk over her shoulder. 

"In a way, the upgrades are really your own fault--you really pissed my father off when you ploughed through his automated army, back in the day." 

Even if Blake rolled her eyes, she smiled as she said, "One of these days, you'll learn to read the room with your jokes." 

"Never heard you say that to Yang," Weiss scoffed. As Blake darted for the next wave, she turned her attention back to the ghostly boarbatusk. _Cover her,_ she told it. 

The summoned boarbatusk charged, smashing into the knights, knocking them backwards and preventing them from closing in behind Blake. Weiss threw out glyph after glyph, aiding Blake's wholesale destruction as best she could, but she was hardly clear herself. 

She sprang between glyphs, her attention split half a dozen directions as she twisted away, moving so fast she dared not second-guess a moment. She'd played keep-away with Ruby often enough, and the principles were the same--or that was what she told herself, as only barely avoiding the thrust of a blade, the next spray of gunfire. 

With so much of her energy and attention dedicated to keeping Blake one step ahead of the automatons, so much spent on a summon, it was just a matter of time before Weiss faltered. Her vision blurring, her aura at a low ebb and struggling to replenish--she missed a step, her boot slipping in spilled mechanical fluid, and she crashed down to a knee. 

Her summon shattered like glass as the nearest automaton's blade sheared through it, and without hesitation or mercy, it lunged for her. Weiss gasped, her glyph only condensing just in time to block the blade, but it was weak, badly formed and flickering--

"Weiss!" 

Blake's thowing knife buried itself deep in the automaton's visor. Electricity crackled up and down the blade, before the automaton's visor went dark. Weiss scrambled out of the way before it could crush her in its fall, already looking for Blake--

The throw had been self-sacrificing, a moment of inattention when Blake herself had struggled to keep ahead of the pack. An automaton bore down on Blake, its energy sword pressing to her shoulder, raising dark sparks of aura and acrid smoke.

Blake cried out in agony, the sound chilling Weiss to the bone. 

Without thought, Weiss threw out her hand, her breath rasping and still blinking the sweat from her eyes. She could hear more automatons coming--their metal footsteps heavy on the concrete, distractingly _loud_ \--she bared her teeth. She had to do something, Blake _needed_ her--

The automaton shattered as Weiss' glyph condensed and collapsed in the space of an instant, the broken shards of metal embedding themselves in the walls and floor. 

Disgusted and gasping for breath, Blake shoved the smoking mess of metal away. Weiss cast a fleeting, worried eye over her friend--aside from a few cuts, she was fine. 

Only then did Weiss drop her hand back to her side, sighing in relief. 

"Thank god for new tricks," Blake told her with a groan, and Weiss saw her gloved fingers tremble slightly as they brushed the scorched leather jacket at her shoulder. Blake swallowed, lowering her hand. "We have to get out of here."

With more knights flooding down the hallway toward them, Weiss couldn't agree more. 

Blake flicked her wrist, a dark pellet appearing from somewhere within her sleeves. It skipped between the feet of the nearest drones, sending up a cloud of choking black smoke, static lacing the edges to scramble sensors. 

They hit the ground running in the opposite direction. As they moved, Weiss' earpiece finally crackled to life, and frustration or not, she felt a dizzying surge of relief at the sound of Ruby's voice. 

_"Weiss? Blake? One of you please say something!"_ Ruby's voice was breathless, and beneath the growing static, Weiss could hear the unmistakable sound of gunfire, clashing blades and explosions. 

"Ruby," Weiss ground out, hitting her mic as she and Blake ran. God, she absolutely _should_ have seen this coming. A stealth mission. Neither Ruby nor Yang could ever cope with a _stealth mission_. "Tell me this disaster is not your fault--"

 _"The operative knew all along. She was playing with us. She thinks we're a part of the Dust theft ring!"_ Ruby paused, and Weiss winced away from the sound of an explosion, followed by the sound of Ember Celica's shotguns firing in rapid succession.

At least Ruby was with Yang. She was as safe as she could ever really be, then. 

_"Weiss, I overheard her sending guards to cover two sectors. Two and three."_

Blake cursed, firing a clip over her shoulder as they skidded around the next corner, growling, "Ruby, we need an exit strategy, not--" 

_"Can you tell me what sectors two and three are? Weiss!"_ Ruby was stubborn as hell, and she was absolutely going to get all of them killed--

Weiss pressed her back to the wall, trying to think over the screech of shearing metal over the comm, the thunder of automaton footsteps through the warehouse. God, what were those plans again? 

"Three covers distributions. But sector two--" Weiss cut off, looking up at Blake, her anger with Ruby and Yang fading into crystal-clear realisation. "That's cold storage." 

Blake didn't reply, her eyes narrowing in thought and her earlier protests dying. She turned to cover their position, firing another clip around the corner. 

_"What's the operative going to protect, if she's here to cover up something big?"_ Ruby asked, going exactly where Weiss suspected she was. _"Distributions makes sense if Damurang really believes we're Dust thieves, but cold storage?"_

"Ruby, you're brilliant," Weiss told her, the coldness in her chest sharpening to vicious determination as she cast a look toward Blake. Of course their leader would put it together. Of course Ruby would be the key. Forget wanting to strangle her--frankly, Weiss wanted to kiss her instead. She smiled. "That's where we find answers."

###

Warnings from Weiss or not, Ruby might have underestimated Damurang just _slightly_. Damurang slid beneath Ruby's tight half-moon strike, twisting away just as smoothly to avoid Yang's testing jab and chambering a kick to punish Ruby's over-extension. 

Ruby barely blocked in time, her form wrong, her boots skidding backwards over the concrete from the force of Damurang's kick. A flash of silver was Ruby's only warning--Crescent Rose's powerful recoil sent her high, a lightning-fast vertical juke as Damurang immediately opened fire. 

For all her clean white suit and ornate guns, Damurang clearly had an interest in hand-to-hand combat. Fighting her on equal ground was like sparring with Yang--a painful demonstration of the difference between 'passable' and 'pro' that Ruby wasn't likely to forget. 

And those handcannons? They hit like _trucks,_ every kick and punch punctuated with a blast, and even blocks buffered by aura and Crescent Rose still sent reverberations through jarring her bones. Ruby really doubted Damurang had been bluffing when she'd threatened Yang with those armour-piercing rounds, and it seemed like half her concentration was devoted to evasion alone. 

Ruby looked up as she heard Yang growl, and knowing exactly what her sister had planned, she rolled to the side. Yang's golden missile of fire erupted from her gauntlets with a deafening _bang_ , but before it could impact, Damurang vanished in a crack of white energy, leaving only automatons to fill the space she'd been. 

Desperate to keep the flood of them down, Ruby shifted Crescent Rose's form. Time slowed as she drew on her semblance, and she lifted her scope. She nailed several automatons in their visors with expert dragscopes, mechanical fluid painting the walls behind them. 

More knights swarmed her position, and her scythe unfurling again, she retreated, desperately scanning for where Damurang had vanished to. Ruby caught a flash of white out of the corner of her eye, and it was only her semblance that left her with enough time to react. 

Ruby flashed backwards as Damurang fired, her scythe whirling in an instinctive block. Her aura crackled and sparked against her flesh as it faltered and nearly broke, her ears ringing, gunfire ricocheting through the hall. 

Damurang hesitated then, her clip running dry, and Ruby seized her chance. She fired, the brutal recoil feeding into a twisting, forward lunge, drawing deep on her semblance to close the gap.

Damurang, however, had already read Ruby's advance. As if in slow motion, Ruby watched her finger hook in the trigger guard of another gun inside her jacket, watched her draw it with a twirl. Her mouth quirked, instantaneous--a warning. 

Ruby wrenched herself out of her attack as the operative fanned the trigger. She careened wildly toward the wall, armour-piercing rounds tracking her path, blasting divots deep in solid metal and concrete alike. 

Recovering in an instant, she twisted to plant her boots against the wall. She rebounded in a corkscrew of flashing steel and rose petals to plow into automatons swarming her. Sliding beneath the humming energy sword of the nearest one, her scythe lashed out, as familiar to her as her own flesh and blood. Crescent Rose's curved blade sheared through the knight's forearm, another cut severing its shoulder. She pivoted around the falling sword, hitting the trigger to reverse her strike and sending the haft of it smashing through the automaton's visor. 

The next automaton fell just as quickly, then the next, sparking piles of metal and broken circuitry littering the hallway--breathless, Ruby looked back over her shoulder for Damurang. 

Damnit, she had to keep perspective! These guys were just distractions, cannon-fodder thrown in her path to buy Damurang space. But for every drone Ruby cut down, it seemed like two more were waiting to take its place, emerging from those glossy black panels in the walls. 

Ahead of her, at least Yang was keeping Damurang occupied. Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby watched Yang hurl herself across the hallway with a blast of Ember Celica, her fist leaving a crater when Damurang vanished at the last moment, reappearing a dozen paces forward.

"So does the SDC make you wear white?" Yang demanded as she charged, blocking a vicious kick with her metal arm and firing her other gauntlet to get behind instead. Her punch to Damurang's kidneys was blocked by an elbow, and Ruby heard Yang grunt as she chambered a reverse punch hard enough to knock her opponent back several paces. 

"I've always wondered about that. It's just never really seemed like a battle-friendly colour!"

"You're correct--and I rather imagine there will be a lot of blood tonight." Damurang's seriousness faded, and she bared her teeth in an expression Ruby could never consider a smile. She dodged before Ruby could line up a clean shot on her, forcing Ruby to retreat and reposition with a trio of shots from her gun. "No matter. Once I've finished disposing of your teammates, I'll simply order a new one on the company card."

Ruby's gut clenched. There was far too much at stake for them to fail here, and Weiss and Blake were counting on them to see this through. But was that red in Yang's eyes, or just the reflection from the warning lights? 

Not willing to risk it, Ruby called out, "Keep a level head!" She stalked forward, her scythe coiled like a serpent ready to strike behind her, but another half a dozen drones lunged at her from the shadows, and she blocked a spray of gunfire on Crescent Rose's haft. "She's baiting you!"

Yang didn't reply, exchanging a rapid series of devastating blows with Damurang, buckshot peppering aura, deflecting off plates of armour hidden beneath sleeves. Yang snarled, her fist trailing yellow fire as she lunged, only to find her fist meeting air alone as Damurang cracked away and fired--

The trio of shots shattered the automaton Ruby had been grappling with, and the concussive force of the blast sent her crashing back into the wall. 

"Ruby!" Yang's shout was practically drowned out by the thunder of Ruby's pulse in her ears, and vaguely, she heard Yang snarl. "That's _it._ "

Still blinking the stars from her eyes, Ruby watched Damurang block Yang's wild blow, watched her seize hold of Yang's flesh arm and hammer hard on the inside of her elbow. Yang cried out, tearing free only to lunge for Damurang again. To Ruby's eyes, it seemed like her sister had thrown all sense of self-preservation into the wind in favour of brute force, her aura sparking and fracturing with each hit. 

"Getting a little angry, are we?" Damurang's voice practically dripped venom as they grappled. 

"More like I'm done messing around with you!" 

Yang's eyes were absolutely, _definitely_ red, her hair lighting up, her fists trailing golden fire with every strike she traded with Damurang. 

Ruby wanted more than anything to help Yang, but they were too close together, leaving even Ruby without a clean shot. She couldn't engage with her scythe either, with its wide arcs and sweeping cuts, not with Yang so close-- 

More automatons were coming, forcing Ruby to split her attention again as she pinwheeled into the three almost on her. 

What Yang was doing, though--it was working, and that was the worst part. Her blows were breaking Damurang's blocks now, the follow-through buckshot sizzling against dark aura.

Ruby knew Yang had tried to keep her cool in fights in the years since Beacon's fall, her temper taking a backseat. It had been one of the things Ruby was most proud of her sister for, and one of the things Yang had valued most about her own journey. 

Now? The operative was digging her way beneath Yang's skin like it was a gift, but that was crazy. Ruby frowned. Her semblance had to be short-range teleportation, otherwise how was she--

Yang roared as her haymaker met nothing but air, and this time, Ruby caught a glow from one of Damurang's gloves, partly hidden by the cuff. She froze, the pictures Blake had shown her of the crime scene at Lawson's warehouse flashing through her mind.

_Teleportation runes?_

Ruby's mind raced as she blocked an automaton's strike, bisecting its torso with a follow-through slice of Crescent Rose, trying to remember everything she knew about runework. How many times had she listened to Weiss talk about this stuff, all because she'd liked to listen to the cadence of her voice, the hint of a smile? 

Like this, she remembered feverishly. Set into a glove with Dust, it meant there was a limit in both use and application--

Before she could warn Yang, her sister blasted forward again, zigzagging to evade Damurang's shots as she closed the distance between them. Damurang's smile faltered as Yang deflected a shot with Ember Celica, and then another--and then by Ruby's count, her clip ran dry. 

Damurang tried to move, drawing another gun from her side with a twirl and firing point-blank--just as Yang hit her dead-on with a fully charged punch. 

Yang's aura shattered, and she crashed backwards into the swarm of drones, even as Damurang flew back through the hallway, and into the darkened refinement plant beyond. 

Breathless and terrified for her sister, Ruby started to run, to cut a path through the automatons, but Yang erupted from them in gout of scorching yellow fire. Her aura was flickering, her vast reserves nearly depleted, and her jacket was stained with blood at the shoulder. 

"Go!" Yang roared to Ruby, and the blast from her gauntlet tore right through the torso of the automaton grappling with her. She cried out, panting and clutching at her injured shoulder, but her violet gaze was unflinching as she met Ruby's eyes. "Don't let her hurt them!"

Ruby's breath caught, and through the exhaustion and adrenaline, she remembered-- _Weiss and Blake._ While Blake was incredibly good, she wouldn't be able to defend for two. Not against someone like Damurang.

Panicked, Ruby tore after Damurang, the claustrophobic hallway opening up into the depot's vast refinement plant. But for the glow from the fire Dust in the engine's fuel cells, filtering an eerie red light over the plant and gleaming down automated machinery as it worked, it was dark. 

Ruby's aura stirred warning, constant and insistent. No matter how she strained, all she could hear was the sound of the plant, the grind of gears and the fracture of Dust as it was refined down to a powder. It made it impossible to get her bearings, to figure out where Damurang had vanished to--

She passed by the conveyer belts, Crescent Rose in hand, the prickling between her shoulder blades and down the length of her spine only growing when something thudded and shifted in the machinery. In the red light, she spotted dark blood, smeared across the ground. Ruby knelt, her gloved fingers brushing over it, considering. A body had slid through here at an impossible speed. 

Her eyes narrowed as she rose to her feet, and silent, she tracked the trail through the machinery. Yang had done a real number on Damurang with that last hit, then, and a part of Ruby wondered if Yang had taken her out of commission already. That would be too much to hope for, however. 

She heard it then--alien amongst the sound of production, the distinctive click of a reload. Her grasp on Crescent Rose tightened.

"One down," Damurang called out from somewhere in the darkness ahead. There was an edge of pain to her voice now, for all the cruel viciousness of her words. "Just little red left, all alone in the darkness."

"I'm all we need," Ruby replied, refusing to let Damurang rattle her. She'd fought far worse than an SDC assassin, and these threats were _nothing_ compared to the horrors Salem had promised. 

She caught the first shot on Crescent Rose's haft, turning the second aside with a flick of the curved blade, her heart racing as she picked out a flash of white in the gloom. 

Ruby darted back to put space between them, evading more shots with sharp recoil from her sniper. She flipped up as Damurang pursued, before firing Crescent Rose in a descending in tornado slice. She hit only air, Damurang cracking away in a burst of light. 

Ruby exhaled, shifting her shoulders with restless energy. Her scythe had been good for the automatons, but in a fight against another hunter? They were fast, manoeuvrable, unpredictable, and Damurang was no exception. 

_This could be easier,_ the traitorous part of her mind whispered. _A sword is for humans._

She knew the forms, drilled into her head over long years of studying with Qrow as they'd fought to prevent the end of the world. They were ingrained in her muscle memory, permanent as a scar--but so too was the feeling of blood, shockingly hot on her hands.

Ruby's jaw set in stubborn defiance. No--she'd made it this far without the sword. 

"Perhaps I've read you both wrong." Damurang's voice sounded from up ahead, between two large crates of searing blue Dust. " _She's_ not the one with the futile heroic ambition, a martyr complex masquerading as a protector of the small--you are." 

Ruby didn't reply, but the claim set her on edge. These were old accusations, thrown at her feet by Cinder Fall during the worst of the Crisis. It had shaken her then, and for a while, it had made her question herself and her motives. To have them repeated now, by someone who could never hate her the way Cinder had...?

Damurang seized on Ruby's flicker of inattention, sliding out from behind the crates. Ruby caught her punch on Crescent Rose's haft, spinning the blade down in a whirlwind strike that Damurang twisted to evade. Ruby pursued, firing her scythe in an aggressive figure-eight move, planting the blade hard in the side of the Dust crate. 

She was slower than before, Ruby noted, tearing her scythe free with a jerk and coiling it behind her, ready. The tables had turned and now, it was Damurang on the backfoot. She felt... odd, a strange sense of deja vu passing over her. Ruby hesitated, shaking her head and pressing the heel of her hand to her temple, frowning. 

_This... hunting her, it feels like too much like--_

"How will it feel to fail?" Damurang asked. There was a familiar, chilling echo to it, and it sliced through Ruby's adrenaline, cutting her to the bone. Her breath catching, Ruby blocked Damurang's next strike, but Damurang locked her stance, bearing down on Ruby with the back of her gun. "How will you feel, when I make you watch them die?"

Damurang drew another gun, and Ruby flashed away, barely moving in time. The _words._ They were an exact echo of Salem's during those final desperate moments before--before--how could...?

Ruby's hands began to tremble as her chest seemed to constrict. Fear and anger warred in her head, neither of them giving ground as they reared up to consume her. 

"Shut up!" 

"Did I hit a nerve?" Damurang asked with a laugh, firing both guns. "Perhaps you really _are_ naive."

Everything was a blur, of fury, panic and horror, and Ruby blocked Damurang's next shots. She moved before Damurang could recover, flashing in with her scythe, twisting to send the the wicked blade spiking up for Damurang's face. With her movements slowed, sluggish from blood loss and aura depletion, Damurang hesitated, just a fraction too slow. 

The memory of Salem's blood on her hands was seared into Ruby's mind, and she wrenched to turn her strike aside before it could kill. 

Panting and exhausted, Ruby couldn't focus. Everything in here was darkness and red--she whiffed a strike that should have ended the fight, overextending badly but whirling away in a burst of semblance before she could be punished for it. She fired Crescent Rose as she went, but Damurang vanished in a crack of magic. Ahead of her, Ruby caught a flicker of white and silver. 

_A dozen paces, forward in space._ Ruby's mind seized on the detail, a lifeboat in a raging sea storm, desperate to think on anything but Salem, anything but the nightmares in her head. If she knew the distance, knew the axis, then she could use it.

"You're good," Damurang told her, vicious as Ruby scanned the darkness for her. "But if you weren't so obviously holding back, you'd fare better."

A rapid six-fan of shots sparked off Crescent Rose, agonising against Ruby's aura even as Damurang teleported just behind her. Ruby pivoted, twisting up in a flip to evade the follow-up shots, using momentum to sweep her scythe in a devastating underarm blow to drive Damurang back again. 

Just as predicted--as hoped--Damurang vanished again. Ruby hit the catch on Crescent Rose, shifting her weapon into a sniper. As Damurang reappeared, exactly as predicted, Ruby took her shot. 

Damurang took the bullet to the arm, her aura breaking. For all the effort, however, it was just a glancing shot. Ruby didn't have time to capitalise on it before Damurang vanished again. 

Tense, the sweat running down her forehead, Ruby tried to track Damurang in the dark--

White light flashed behind her, and something cold and metal snared about her throat. Reactive, Ruby clutched at it, her gloved fingers getting caught--just as the noose tightened. Damurang kicked her legs from under her, the wire cable cutting into Ruby's throat, choking, her aura sparking read in front of her eyes and rapidly failing. 

_Forward in space,_ Ruby repeated, trying to strike wildly behind her with Crescent Rose but hitting only air, trying to pull the garrotte loose with her pinned fingers but the angle made it impossible. She couldn't breathe. _And backward, too._

"You're smart," Damurang hissed in Ruby's ear. Her vision began to grow dark and spotty at the edges, her lungs aching from the lack of air, the garrotte tightening with a jerk and finally cracking her depleted aura to cut into her skin. "I've changed my mind. You're far too smart to _leave alive_." 

Desperate and with nothing left to lose, Ruby drew deep on her semblance, deeper than she'd ever dared, until she wasn't sure if her head was spinning from that or simply the lack of oxygen. She threw them both backward in a boom of speed. The warehouse wall loomed behind them in an instant, and moving at such an incredible speed, they both smashed all the way through. 

Bricks and mortar shattered, and even though Damurang ate the bulk of the impact, Ruby nearly blacked out from the pain. 

Ruby drew deeper, and they tore right through the chain link fence. Before Ruby could plough them both into the darkened, abandoned warehouses beyond, Damurag's glove lit up with white light, and she vanished. 

Ruby felt a stab of horror lance through her chest, and she crashed into darkness alone, her aura gone. She hit the broken brickwork hard, and she was out like a light as the ruined warehouse began to crumble down on top of her.

###

Gritting her teeth through the exhaustion, Weiss summoned a fresh set of glyphs. Ahead of her, Blake bounded between them at a break-neck pace, attacking the last of the SDC guards from half a dozen positions at once, shadows splitting from her with every dash and strike. Only when the last guard fell did Weiss finally lower her trembling hand, her glyphs vanishing in a pale shimmer. 

Blake didn't spare her a look, stalking toward the heavy door barring their entry to cold storage, scanning it with feverish intensity. The security pad set into it was lit up in red, and as she joined Blake at the door, Weiss could read the warning--the sector had been locked down when Ruby and Yang had engaged the operative head-on. 

_Perfect,_ Weiss thought with an internal growl. 

Blake stepped back, looking the door up and down again before slamming her palm against the reinforced metal surface. After a moment, she looked to Weiss over her shoulder, her ears flat back. 

"You need to blow the lock!" 

"Are you _out of your mind_?" Weiss demanded, and god she'd always believed Blake had a stronger respect for Dust. "There are several tons of highly reactive material behind that door--"

"We can't waste anymore time! Yang is counting on us. So is Ruby." Blake's words were harsh and jagged in the quiet, and Weiss felt herself flinch at the names. "We need what's in there, _whatever_ it is."

Weiss exhaled, shaky and reluctant, but relenting all the same. Blake was right. Every moment they wasted in their search just increased the danger Ruby and Yang faced. Team RWBY was Weiss' family, and for them, she'd do anything. 

Setting her jaw, she extended a hand, a small glyph coalescing over the security panel, stark white against vivid red. She had to be incredibly careful. Too much force, and she could very well spark a chain reaction of Dust that would likely demolish half of Mantle. Too small, and the mechanisms she needed to cleanly break would simply warp and bend, leaving her even worse off in a subsequent attempt. 

A deep, throbbing pain started up between her eyes as her glyph slowly rotated over the lock, the strain of her semblance being used in such a manner rapidly wearing her thin. What other choice did she have, though?

The pain grew sharper, the edges of her vision beginning to blur with exhaustion. Sweat trickling down between her shoulder blades, her pulse n her ears, Weiss closed her eyes. She felt for the deeper structure of her glyph, the stored energy, before finally she pulled the connective thread of energy with a low groan. 

The glyph buckled in on itself with the sound of tearing metal and shattering glass, and the red security panel flickered, going dark. 

Breathless, Weiss cast Blake a victorious look. Blake only smiled, resting a hand on Weiss' shoulder in a brief squeeze before setting Gambol Shroud's cleaver in what should have been a sensored, sealed gap in the door. The heavy lock gave out with a grudging screech, and Weiss watched her shoulder the sliding door aside with a hard shove. Weiss slipped inside after her, the door sliding shut behind them. 

Around them, fluorescent lights flickered on. Cold storage was the smallest of the depot sectors, but for the SDC, it was an important one. The environment within was heavily regulated, controlled with pin-point accuracy to prevent the introduction of anything that could spark a Dust reaction. 

Weiss' breath rose in a mist as she cast a critical eye over the rows, shelves stacked high with sealed crates of Dust. All of them bore a dozen different warning signs, the combinations for each one different from the next. 

"We should start by finding the manifests. There could be something strange in storage--something that shouldn't be here." Weiss cursed beneath her breath, weary frustration bubbling up but her sense of urgency never fading. She exhaled, soft and quiet as she admitted, "It's impossible to say what we're looking for yet."

Together, they slipped through the chilled aisles, and passing by a crate, Weiss paused, her fingertips brushing the array of warnings stamped on the front. The vacuum seal seemed secure, the internal coolant mechanisms operating at expected levels. Nothing seemed odd or clearly outside SDC regulation--so what was so important that the operative had sent so many guards? Was it really just as simple as securing volatile product? 

Blake didn't share her curiousity, moving on ahead, Gambol Shroud still in hand. Weiss sighed and followed, but when they reached the very end of the first row, Blake's footsteps faltered. She held out a hand before Weiss could push past her, her golden eyes darting a warning. 

"There," she murmured, pointing, and as quiet as the words were, in the silence of cold storage they seemed strangely loud. "Those don't look like storage crates."

Tucked beneath the lowest shelf, Weiss caught sight of heavy, filthy plastic tarp--something that was absolutely _not_ regulation. A chill ran down her spine, through her aura. She shared a glance with Blake, her mouth growing tight. 

Blake moved first, crouching by the plastic on a knee, the constant flicker of her ears the only concession to her unease. After a moment, Weiss joined her, stooping to help Blake pull one of the bags free. It was surprisingly heavy, Weiss noted grimly, stepping back to let Blake unzip the top. Its contents were clearly bulky and--

Releasing her hold on the bag, Blake hissed.

"Blake?" Weiss ventured, watching her normally unflappable friend backed away, until she was pressed back against the opposite shelf, clasping her hands to her mouth, the blood still draining from her face.

Blake's gaze cut back toward her, afraid and sickened. She seemed to struggle with words for a long moment, before she looked aside, her teeth clenched. 

"It's Raines. And the other bag--it has to be Yaaj."

Weiss felt herself go cold. Choking down her first instinct to run, she steeled her nerves, reaching out to pull the bag open again. Immediately, she felt her stomach rebel as she looked at what was inside. 

Raines had been dead several days, likely from the time he'd vanished the day Lawson's body had been found. His features were caked in congealed, darkened blood, his veins standing out stark against his pale skin, jaw ripped clean of his face and his eyes--Weiss gagged, her old scar over her own eye aching in sharp sympathy as she pressed the back of her wrist to her mouth. 

There were more of those unexplained Dust burns, she struggled to note. More injuries from tooth and claw, more ligature marks, more _everything_. It was exactly like Lawson and yet so very different, as if an entirely different set of horrors had befallen Raines. 

But this _was_ the Grimm's work--there could be no doubt about it. 

Weiss let the bag--the body bag, she corrected--fall shut, feeling ill. Wetting her lips, she looked to Blake. "What the hell are we dealing with?"

"A monster. That's all it can be." Blake's eyes narrowed, the press of her lips growing tighter when she glanced back toward the bag, and then away. With a jerk, she reached for her mic. "Ruby, we've found the missing huntsmen." 

There were a few beats of silence, and all Weiss could hear from her earpiece was static. No gunfire, no explosions, nothing. The cold fear already twisting Weiss' stomach grew exponentially sharper. 

"Ruby? Yang?" Weiss pressed, an edge to it she couldn't contain. There was no reply from either of their teammates, and Weiss felt her hand, her fingers still pressed to her mic, begin to tremble. "Ruby, please say something!"

There was no response, and Weiss looked to Blake, her heart in her throat. 

She rose to her feet with a lurch, all attempts at grace abandoned. Yang's only request of her tonight had been to watch Ruby's back, and now both of them had gone dark. She'd known Damurang was dangerous from the reports she'd seen, but both Yang and Ruby were capable fighters. 

What tricks did Damurang have in reserve, if she'd really gotten the better of them both? 

_I should have done something,_ she decided with a twist of self-recrimination, stalking for the exit and ignoring Blake when she called out after her. _Gotten them more information, helped them somehow!_

It took a moment to haul the damaged door to the side again, her weary muscles screaming in protest. The hallway outside was littered with the remains of knights and unconscious security guards, but empty all the same. Where had Ruby and Yang been last? She couldn't remember--

Weiss' aura spiked warning too late as something smashed into her from behind--how? She hit the ground badly, sparks flashing in front of her eyes and the breath nearly knocked from her lungs. She swore, trying to scramble to her feet, but a brutal knee to the small of her back pinned her down, preventing her from rolling to her feet to see her attacker. 

"Don't. Move," a voice that had to be Damurang's growled, her voice tight from pain. In spite of the terrible situation, Weiss felt a stab of petty satisfaction and pride for Ruby and Yang, if they'd been the ones to put it there. 

Swallowing her pain, she threw out her hand, trying to scrape together the concentration for a glyph to knock Damurang away--but at the hard press of a gun to the back of her skull, she froze. 

Weiss could smell blood on the operative's clothing, the noxious burn of spent Dust and ammunition. She swallowed, flinching away from press of metal as it grew bruising, the implications of Damurang's presence now hitting her hard. 

If the operative was _here_ , then her worst fears about Ruby and Yang had come to pass. Damurang certainly wouldn't share the same reservations about killing as Ruby did. Weiss had to wonder--were they even still alive? 

Blake was still free, however, Weiss remembered desperately. Blake could find them, help them--

"Show yourself," Damurang called out, and the knee against Weiss' spine grew so painfully heavy she gasped out. "She needn't die."

The warehouse was quiet. Weiss clenched her teeth, praying Blake had some sort of contingency plan--preferably one that didn't involve them ending up even worse off than Yang and Ruby. The gun pressed to her skull cocked, blatant warning. 

She cursed beneath her breath when she heard the unmistakable sound of Blake's heels on the concrete. 

_You idiot,_ she thought, twisting her head to glare at Blake as she emerged from cold storage. Blake met Weiss' furious gaze, her expression guarded, before she looked back to Damurang. 

With the gun still pressed to her, Weiss could feel Damurang's twitch of surprise as she made the connection. 

"The famed Blake Belladonna," Damurang said, her voice soft and almost unbelieving. As Blake approached, she clicked her tongue in faux disappointment. "I'd wondered who it was that so deftly slipped our security. I see the President's gesture of goodwill in removing you from the watch list has been... spurned." 

Weiss could have laughed aloud at the lie--her father would have done no such thing. He was hardly the forgive and forget sort, especially with ex-White Fang operatives. She didn't dare breathe a word, however. If Jacques owned Damurang's loyalty, then giving herself up like that would ensure he turned his attention to Team RWBY. 

"I have no interest in remaining in Jacques' good graces," Blake replied, a hard note of anger in her voice as she advanced a step. "I'd figured something stank about the SDC's involvement in Mantle, but this? We found the bodies. You're going to have a bad time explaining this to the Mantle hunting authority."

"The two vagrants left in cold storage? Trespassers, I'm told. You see, they managed to get lost in our processing plant." Damurang's voice was amused. "The results were rather gruesome, however far from unexpected."

 _Nothing in that plant could gouge out a man's eyes,_ Weiss thought, looking to Blake, before glancing to the way out. With the gun to her head, she was useless, but... _If Blake can distract her, we may stand a chance._

Blake read her glare accurately, her gaze hardening when she looked back to Damurang. "Perhaps a couple more bodies is just another business day for the SDC, but I'm not morally bankrupt enough to agree."

"This, coming from a woman who is both a terrorist and a thief? Forgive me if I don't cede the moral high ground just yet." Damurang inhaled sharply then, as if laughing. "Such a motley crew, too. A huntress who crippled dozens of guards, a terrorist, a wannabe hero who dulls her fangs--and what are _you_?" Weiss gasped in pain as that knee at her back pressed even harder. "You've been remarkably quiet, however _someone_ sabotaged our defence system. And here I thought this assignment would be boring."

"You don't get it!" Blake burst out, stepping forward. "We _aren't_ Dust thieves--we don't give a damn about it!" 

"Lies," Damurang hissed, and Weiss felt her attention shift, resting solely on Blake. "A leopard won't change her spots."

"Those contractors of yours--they weren't caught in a Dust process!" Blake shot back, and she didn't flinch when Damurang drew another gun, cocking it. "All of those unexplained injuries are ones _we've_ seen before. They were targeted by a Grimm, one that we're hunting!" 

Damurang was taking the bait, reading Blake as the genuine threat she was. But before Weiss could take advantage of Damurang's inattention to her, her earpiece finally crackled alive. 

_"Blake? Weiss?"_ Yang said, her breathing laboured and painful. Any relief Weiss had at the confirmation she was alive vanished with Yang's next words. _"Ruby's missing! Weiss--I'm pinned down here and I have no idea--damnit!"_

There was the sound of an explosion in the background, and Yang roared something about assholes using rockets inside a building that Weiss couldn't hear over the dull roar rising in her ears. Weiss looked up to Blake, desperate. _Ruby._ Ruby was gone, Yang was alive, and Weiss--Weiss had to do something. 

Blake's mouth tightened, inclining her head just slightly. Weiss exhaled, ready. 

Everything happened at once. Blake's shadows split away from her, lunging for the operative even as she opened fire with Gambol Shroud. Abandoning Weiss as a bargaining chip in an instant, Damurang sprang away, her shots shattering Blake's shadows, dispersing them. 

Weiss flashed to her feet, and covering her retreat, Blake dashed into Damurang's path. Gambol Shroud flashed and blurred, deflecting shots that would have hit Weiss with only her aura as a final defence. She darted away again as she heard Blake growl, heard metal clash, scanning for cover.

In this hallway, however, there was nothing. 

_This is bad,_ Weiss realised. Without Myrtenaster, she was a dead weight--but entirely unarmed, she was not. 

There would be no way an SDC operative would be unfamiliar with the Schnee family semblance, and there was no doubt this would betray her identity. But it was their best chance to best Damurang, once and for all--and with her team--with _Ruby_ \--on the line, Weiss didn't give a damn about herself, or her father learning what they'd done at the depot tonight. 

Weiss threw out a hand as weapons clashed again behind her, the massive glyph condensing before her. As it span, growing brighter, Weiss heard Damurang curse, heard Blake cry out. Her heart in her throat, Weiss turned half a step, hesitating, looking back to where Blake had hit the wall so hard she'd dented the metal, to where she was still forcing herself to her feet. 

Standing over Blake but forgetting her presence entirely, Damurang stared, clutching at her bloody shoulder. Her gun was trembling as she raised it against Weiss.

Weiss exhaled, her nerves steeling as her glyph grew blinding bright. 

Damurang opened fire again, and Weiss didn't move. With a gust of energy and white petals, the knight's blade materialised, deflecting the shots with a contemptuous flick. 

Damurang hesitated as the summoned knight fully formed, finally putting the details together. 

"Weiss Schnee?"

###

Ruby awoke with a jerk, her ears ringing, the distant sound of sirens, gunfire and clashing blades warped and distorted. She blinked, squinting against the painfully bright light ahead of her, trying to resolve the shifting details. A gaping hole had been torn through the side of the SDC. Water pipes had been burst, electrical wiring torn, bricks and mortar smashed all the way free littering across the ground. 

"Yang?" she tried with a rasp, blinking again. Rain tracked down her face, running into her eyes. She drew a shuddering, unsteady breath when Yang didn't answer. "Weiss? Blake?"

There was no answer, and she groaned, her breath coming sharp and short. God, it felt like a whole building had come down on her--and as she tried to rise to her feet, she remembered that hey, that was exactly it. 

_The operative,_ she remembered vaguely. She'd been fighting Damurang with Yang, trying to prevent her from getting to Weiss and Blake--

And then she'd failed. Ice gripped her stomach, and she staggered to her feet, clutching at the cutting and bruising at her throat. She lurched when she tried to take a step, barely catching herself on a crumbling slab of cement. Her aura was critically low, from the fight and now working overtime to heal her throat, the deep bruising across her back, where the pouring rain stung in a cut to her scalp. 

She'd done that when she'd busted through the wall, she remembered. 

_I have to get back to them,_ Ruby told herself, inhaling sharp and trying to quell the strange, insistent panic still fluttering in her chest. _She... she talked like Salem. How is that possible?_

Ahead of her, Crescent Rose jutted from the rubble, gleaming red and wicked in the depot's searing spotlights. Ruby froze mid-step, her vision swimming dangerously, her breath catching painfully in her throat. 

For a moment, in strange place between the spotlight and the shadows, Crescent Rose looked like it had taken the sword form, for all that it couldn't have. For all that she _refused._

A deep chill passed over her, and she curled in on herself, her grasp trembling as she clutched at her cloak. Yang, she remembered. She had to get to Yang, but--

Ruby's aura stirred. Breathing hard, she looked up. 

A dark figure waited on the same rooftop she'd been staked out for hours on, its body like shadows, its face a vivid white deer's skull. The knife of cold dread through her aura was strikingly familiar, and she connected the pieces in an instant.

 _It--it's been watching me for hours,_ Ruby realised, her eyes going wide. _All this time as we searched for it, it's been watching. All that interference over the comms wasn't the storm!_

She reached for her scroll, drawing it from her pocket feverishly--she swallowed, turning it over and over again in her hands. The screen was smashed, and all Ruby could see for a horrifying moment was Stratworth's ruined scroll. 

There was no way to contact her team, now. There was no way to tell them what she'd seen. No way to call for help. 

No way to _warn them._

Panicked, Ruby looked back to the dark figure, watched it turn away from her, blackness seeming to stream from it in the howling wind and rain. Lawson's mauled body, Salem's words so easily mimicked by the operative, the ichor, the conviction that something horrible had happened to Weiss.

She couldn't throw this chance away. She couldn't let it hurt anyone else. She had to act, _now_ , or she'd only live to regret it. Just like she had with Pyrrha and Penny and so many others who'd died in a war between witches and wizards. 

Ruby flashed forward, heedless of the tremble of exhaustion in her bones, the low ebb of her aura. She drew Crescent Rose from the rubble, looking back to where the Grimm had lingered the rooftop. Her semblance coiling and exhaling long and low, she took off into the storm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year, all! :D
> 
>  
> 
> ~~and as always, spot the Destiny reference.~~


	14. Where Wolves Fear to Prey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hunt is on, but Ruby should pay heed - who is the hunter, and who is the hunted?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *deep inhale* 
> 
> Let's do this.

"Weiss Schnee?"

Weiss wasn't about to allow Damurang the time to fully process the realisation. Her knight lashed forward on a thought, its momentum spurred on by glyphs. The impact was enough to send shockwaves through the ground, motes of shimmering light and white petals spiralling out as Damurang crashed backwards at breakneck speed. 

Damurang twisted like a serpent as she flew, silver flashing in her hands. Weiss threw out a desperate hand and the knight's zweihander blurred, deflecting the vindictive parting shot intended for Blake. 

_"Weiss!"_ Yang roared again, so loudly Weiss' earpiece distorted the sound. In the background, she caught the howl of rockets, and even from here, she felt the distant tremble through the ground. _"I can't shake this guy--you know what we promised!"_

"I know," Weiss replied, closing her eyes for a moment, trying to _think._ Ruby had been with Yang, hadn't she? Then she had to be close to that location still. Weiss inhaled, a sense of calm purpose settling over her as she asked, "Yang, where are you?" 

There was no immediate answer. Ahead of her, Blake had pushed herself to a knee, Gambol Shroud clutched in her hand and her face bloodied from her last brutal exchange with Damurang. Weiss flashed forward to Blake's side, clasping her free elbow to pull her to her feet. 

Another explosion rocked the depot, and Weiss looked up, cursing beneath her breath as the sprinkler system activated. Beside her, Blake paused, her bloodied cat ears flickering in restless unease.

"From refinement," she said after a moment, squinting against the water as she wiped her bangs from her eyes. "Weiss, this place is getting _really_ dangerous." 

"Understatement of the century." Weiss glanced back down the hallway, to where red lights flashed and sirens blared. Was that a flash of white she saw, beyond the wet haze of water? Quietly, she said to Blake, "Damurang's still here. Can you buy me time to get clear?"

"Now that you've called in the heavy cavalry?" Blake nodded to the summoned knight waiting at Weiss' side. Her smile returned, however wry and fleeting, as she said, "I think I can figure something out. Rendezvous with Yang and tell her to withdraw. I won't be far behind." 

Weiss exhaled, looking to her knight. It shouldered its sword with a clank of ghostly metal, and it took the lead as it marched down the hall and into the darkness beyond. A part of Weiss envied its immutable stoicism. It didn't fear. It didn't wonder what was happening in refinement with Yang, didn't dread what had happened to Ruby. 

It did what needed to be done, no matter the cost to itself. Weiss' jaw clenched as they picked their way through strewn metal and unconscious security guards, watching the darkness with a careful eye. She hoped she'd been wrong--that Damurang saw the sense in fleeing a losing battle after all--

Damurang cracked into existence in a burst of light, and Weiss didn't have time to react before she was thrown hard against the metal wall. The impact sent sparks through her failing aura, and before she could twist away, Damurang's forearm pressed across her shoulders with bruising force. 

Weiss didn't flinch, and over Damurang's shoulder, she saw Blake melt into back the shadows, ready. 

Damurang paid Blake no heed, her attention zeroing in on Weiss. It seemed she had no time for even Blake Belladonna--not when Jacques' own daughter was in her grasp, ready to be handed over like some sort of common criminal. Weiss supposed she had to give the woman points for ambition. 

Ahead of them, the summoned knight turned sharply, but its advance paused at the cock of a hammer beneath Weiss' jaw. 

"This is getting old," Weiss told her, pitching her words low and bored. She was desperate to claw her way free of Damurang's grasp, though, to find her way first to Yang, then to Ruby. Her heart twisted in knife-sharp worry, but she refused to let her feelings betray her as she asked, "You really believe I'm such an easy hostage?"

"Hardly a mistake I'll make twice." Damurang's voice was chilled. "As delightful as it is to finally make your acquaintance, Ms. Schnee, this _farce_ has gone on long enough."

"Then I suggest you stand down," Weiss replied. Damurang's eyes only narrowed, and Weiss laughed, short and unsurprised. "I didn't think so." 

"Your father has given very strict instructions regarding your presence on SDC property. However, there is no reason this needs to go so... poorly. All I require is that you and Belladonna stand down and come along quietly," Damurang's tone darkened then, the press of the gun to Weiss' jaw growing harder as she said, "Or I'll ensure I follow protocol to the letter."

Weiss' lip curled. "A magnanimous favour, I'm sure." 

"More the chance to save your team. Rose and Xiao Long, if memory serves." Damurang's eyes searched Weiss' expression--and then she smiled. "You genuinely fear for them, don't you?"

"Do I look afraid?" Weiss' jaw clenched, refusing lie down and allow herself to be analysed by one of her father's favourites. At her side, she slowly lifted her hand, careful not to attract Damurang's attention. A large, kinetic glyph lit up at the knight's feet.

"And there we see the true difference between the President and yourself on display. His callous disregard is hardly an act, while you? Cut your friends, and _you_ bleed." Damurang laughed then, as if finally understanding the punchline to a joke. "You and Rose--you really _are_ poorly matched, aren't you?"

 _Ruby._ Weiss' hands curled into furious fists, releasing the glyph's mass of stored energy in a rush as she snarled, "Don't you dare mistake my empathy for a lack of will!"

Damurang's eyes widened, and she cracked away in a flash of light just in time. The knight's heavy sword buried itself to the hilt just to the right of Weiss' side. She couldn't spare a moment, vaulting over the knight's shoulder, moving before Damurang could retarget her. 

Somewhere behind her, Weiss heard Damurang curse. Magic cracked as she reappeared, hot on Weiss' heels as she pursued her down the hallway, toward the intersection of hallways where the warehouse branched off to refinement and distributions. Weiss extended a hand, her boots skidding on water and polished cement, repelling herself off the wall to make the sharp turn. 

As she cleared the corner, Weiss heard Blake snarl, and she chanced a fleeting look back over her shoulder. Dark shadows condensed behind Damurang, Blake attacking from three directions at once in silent fury. 

Refusing to waste the opening her teammate had given her, Weiss seized her chance. Her shuddering breath slowed as she summoned a golden temporal glyph. Behind her, she heard Damurang shout, Blake cry out, the clash of metal--but all of it was left behind as time dilated.

###

Without Weiss to maintain the power behind the summon, the knight wouldn't last long, and Blake wasn't about to waste time fighting Damurang in a pointless one-on-one battle. She listened keenly as she fought, bounding off the knight's blade to block Damurang's next attempt at pursuit, shadows splitting from her to take Damurang's every devastating counter. 

The moment Blake caught the tell-tale chime of glyphs, the sound delicate amidst the roar of sirens and distant explosions, she let a smoke pellet fly from her sleeve and abandoned the fight. 

She sprinted for the fork in the hallway, fragments of a plan barely crystallising in her head as behind her, the knight shattered with Damurang's next attack. It had served its purpose, though, buying Blake the breathing space she'd needed. 

She split shadows from herself at the junction, forcing all the aura she could spare into them, praying they'd last the distance. Two of the shadows took off toward refinement, firing back at Damurang to seize her attention, while Blake and the last shadow veered hard toward distributions, their boots slipping in the water and oilslick on the ground. 

Blake heard Damurang bite back a curse, and at the hallway's fork, the drum of her footsteps paused for half a moment before taking off after the decoys.

 _Perfect,_ Blake noted with a vicious smile, but her satisfaction faded as she feverishly scanned the hallway ahead. While their energy persisted, the shadows would lead Damurang on a merry chase through the depot--not long, but long enough. In the meantime, she find a way to get clear.

High on the wall, she caught the subtle gleam of red light over a grill--a major vent, a part of the cold storage system to control the environment. She didn't hesitate, using her remaining shadow as a boost, prying the vent cover away with her cleaver. Passing it along to the shadow to quietly dispose of, she vaulted up the wall again, squeezing into the ventilation shaft and finally tucking herself out of sight. 

So long as Blake made the most of her reprieve, kept moving, she'd be in the clear--but in an unknown system with only vague recollections of the depot blueprints, it was a task far more easily said than done.

###

Ruby tracked the whipping edge of pitch-black shadow through Mantle's wrecked and smashed up underbelly, dashing across the bare bones of rooftops, tearing through the skeletons of old, abandoned family homes and shopfronts. The Grimm flickered at the edge of her vision, elusive, leaving her with no clean shot and no choice but to pursue.

Her breath was rasping as she pushed on, scaling the side of a crumbling apartment block. Most of the area had been abandoned during the Crisis, when the Mantle line had nearly broken. But for odd pockets of life and flickering neon signs, great swathes of the sector were dark and empty. 

Despite how nightmarish the landscape was, at least Ruby could be sure no civilians would get caught in the crossfire. 

She skidded to a stop at the edge of the roof, scanning the darkened streets with feverish intensity, listening over the howling wind and splatter of rain. Almost at the edge of hearing, she caught it--the telltale scrape of bone and claw over crumbling cement. 

_Below,_ she decided, making a split-second decision. As fast as the Grimm seemed to move, there was no room to doubt in her instincts, in the creeping chill pervading her aura. 

Ruby leapt off the edge of the ruined apartment complex, plunging into the dark alleyway below. She landed in a burst of petals, Crescent Rose coiling behind her and poised to strike. 

Around her, the alleyway was empty, strewn with old trash and boxes growing damp in the rain. She inhaled, shaky. It was gone--slipping through her fingers like mist.

Gasping and blinking the rain from her eyes, Ruby listened again. The rasp of bone against rotting wood, the familiar hook of dread in the pit of her stomach drawing her onwards--

Lightning split the sky overhead, and Ruby spotted it. It lingered at the alleyway mouth, below shattered neon signs, its branching white horns searing in silver light. As the lightning faded, plunging the alleyway back into pitch black darkness, the Grimm paused. 

Its empty eye sockets trailing fire, it very deliberately looked back, its neck twisting at an impossible angle, the sound of bones crunching and cracking as it twitched. Ruby's aura recoiled instinctively, the sheer weight behind the Grimm's gaze almost suffocating in its intensity. 

_It's not afraid of me,_ Ruby realised with a swallow. Overhead, thunder followed the lightning in a deep rumble, stirring the hair on the back of her neck. _But it's a Grimm that hunts hunters--why would it be?_

She hated that she hesitated, her grasp on Crescent Rose tightening convulsively. She hated the doubt rearing up in her chest, strangling her, _freezing_ her--

Refusing to back down, Ruby streaked forward in a burst of semblance and recoil, and the Grimm turned away from her, neither making a break for across the broken road nor standing its ground. Instead, it vaulted up the side of the next building, and Ruby's boots skidded in the grit and rain as she watched the whip of darkness vanish over the edge of the roof. She followed in an unsteady lunge, old neon signs breaking and pulling loose beneath her weight as she scrambled to make up the ground she'd so quickly lost. 

She cleared the top just an instant later, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw it vanish over the opposite edge once more. Before her, Mantle stretched out in a sea of lights, hazy through the storm as she plunged off after the Grimm, heedless of her own safety. 

If she let the Grimm escape, there was no telling when her next chance would arrive. How many people would it kill? The fresh wave of horror that accompanied the thought galvanised her. 

Stealth missions, theories of political corruption and so many shades of grey it made Ruby's head _spin_ to consider them--none of that mattered when she hunted. It was either her, or the creatures of Grimm. It was kill or be killed. As terrifying as the Grimm was, as she pursued the it across Mantle's abandoned slums, there was catharsis in the simplicity she'd never dare to breathe to anyone else. It was like the cobwebs clinging inside her head vaporised, burned away by the sweet rush of adrenaline and clarity of purpose. 

The Grimm kept just a hundred paces ahead of her, twisting through the shadows and forgotten alleys. No matter how fast Ruby moved, how many dangerous stunts she pulled to close the gap, the distance between them refused to dwindle as it fled. 

_Fled_ was probably the wrong word--Grimm were more likely to stand their ground, to fight a hunter and consume them. They didn't flee. They didn't watch. They didn't torture. 

Ruby wasn't about to make the rookie huntress mistake of believing the Stalker Grimm to be a normal Grimm. It was deeply intelligent, and that meant it had to be incredibly old. It was fast, too, sure of its footing in the urban landscape. 

Bipedal, she noted as she clambered down a rusting fire escape, for all the other details of its physique seemed to shift and twist in the dark. She leapt after it, hot on its tail as it plunged off the edge of the next building, Crescent Rose shifting instinctively in her hands as she fell. 

Her scope's crosshairs grazed over the deer skull, her semblance reducing the world to a crawl. She pulled the trigger, but the shot ricocheted off a sudden rise of brickwork, the Grimm falling through the broken skylights of an abandoned warehouse. 

Ruby's eyes narrowed. She hit the ground running, streaking forward without a beat of hesitation and crashing through the rotting wooden boarding in burst of petals, concussive munitions and shattering glass. She rolled, snapping up to a knee to scope out the interior, her heart thundering in her ears as she strained to resolve the oppressive blackness. 

She felt her aura shift, and slowly, she rose to her feet. Ahead of her, in the warehouse proper, it was waiting for her. A deep calm settled through her. She wasn't an idiot--if it had been watching her, waiting for her, then it had been leading her. Somewhere it had an advantage--a nest? Other Grimm? 

It didn't seem to show any pack behaviour, however. As far as she could tell, it was just a lone monstrosity in the urban landscape, feeding on aura-rich targets. Ruby could only assume it wanted the same of her. 

_Just like Salem had,_ a part of her remembered. _Pain to feed on, amplified by torture._

Ruby paused, pressing the heel of her gloved hand to her temple, trying to quell the sudden, painful worry in her stomach. Damurang had really gotten into her head, hadn't she?

It didn't matter. Ruby had a hunt to complete. 

Drawing a small flare from the holster slung at her hip, Ruby inhaled sharply, striking it alight and holding it aloft. The abandoned warehouse office was eerie in its red light, and wetting her lips, she pressed onward. The hallway was gutted, the exposed plaster mouldering in the damp, the linoleum floors scorched and curling at the corners. 

At the threshold of the vast warehouse's interior, Ruby paused. Darkness stretched before her, fathomless as an abyss, and despite the silence, she knew it was waiting. 

Measured, she tossed the red flare into the centre of the room, watching it roll across the rotting paper strewn across the ground, Crescent Rose unfurling in her grasp as finally, the Grimm was revealed to her. Her jaw firming, she advanced in slow, cautious strides. 

The Grimm didn't move, its head tilting, its neck twisting in nightmarish, wrenching jerks. Blackness seemed to pour from its body to blend with the night around it, but beneath the shift of shadows, Ruby caught exposed bone armour, scales that gleamed like mirrors in the flare's light. 

It was unlike anything she'd seen before. Even so, even knowing what this monster did to hunters and what it intended for her--Ruby felt calm and settled, keen like the edge of a knife. Hunting and monster slaying was what she knew. 

This Grimm might not be afraid of her--but it should be. 

Thunder rumbled outside, and against the rusting corrugated iron roof, the ceaseless drum of rain grew heavier as Ruby and the Stalker Grimm began to circle one another. The Grimm moved fitfully beneath her gaze, bones seeming to click and pop with every stride, the way it twitched only reminding Ruby ever more strongly of the worst of Salem's brood.

Knuckelavee had been one, created with a passing resemblance to humans, a twisted mockery of the legend of the Brother Gods, a reflection cast in the blackest pitch. Ruby flashed forward, whirling in an aerial, testing strike. Skeletal hands flashed out from within the shadows, claws like knives deflecting the curved edge of her scythe. 

_Stronger than Knuckleavee,_ Ruby noted with cool detachment, backflipping in a rush of petals to reclaim her space, her boots skidding across the debris-strewn ground and Crescent Rose snapping out. She watched the Grimm advance a trembling step, its gait pitching and inhuman, claws scraping over the ground. It hissed, the sound warped and bleeding at the edges. 

Her eyes narrowed, tracking its every step with keen attention, assessing it. In close quarters, the Grimm was clearly a threat, only now it moved slowly, without purpose. How had it cornered Lawson's team then? How had it moved with such speed through the city, when she herself had pursued it? 

The strange puzzle of contradictions and mismatched evidence made no difference to her--the Grimm had killed so many people, and for that she had to end it. 

Ruby burst toward it again, her semblance sizzling through her veins to banish the sluggish weariness, feeding her rush of adrenaline. She vaulted upward to evade its instinctive defensive slash, reversing the whirl into a descending fang strike.

Before her blade could split bone, the Grimm melted away, hissing low in its throat again as claws flashed out. Ruby pivoted, firing Crescent Rose in a wide horizontal arc to counter and entirely unsurprised when she hit nothing but smoke. She resettled her shoulders, tightening her grasp on Crescent Rose as she snapped her weapon back behind her. 

So it really _was_ fast. When it came down to the wire, though, she'd bet anything she was faster. 

Ruby's instincts sharpened, static rising in the back of her throat when she darted forward again, moving faster, Crescent Rose flicking between scythe-spear-sniper in a blur, driving the Grimm back, forcing it to play to her demands and cede to her control of the hunt.

She slammed the back of her scythe's blade against the deer's skull, drawing sparks as metal skidded off iron-tough bone. It retreated, exactly the same as before, and her lightning-fast follow-through shot splattered blood and dark flesh against the wall. 

She wondered if, perhaps, the Grimm finally felt a shred of the fear Lawson and his team had before their end. 

The Grimm hunched in on its injured shoulder, the sound of its hissing rising in a throat-tearing rasp. Ruby paused, breathless as she tried to process what she'd heard. Not a hiss--there was too much purpose for that. 

_A laugh?_ she realised, her eyes widening a fraction as it faced her. 

Its head tilted to the side, its bones grinding wetly as it finally stopped at a terrifyingly unnatural angle. Despite the swirling, featureless darkness beneath the deer skull, Ruby was suddenly struck by the overwhelming certainty that it was grinning at her. 

Unsettled, Ruby closed the distance again, firing Crescent Rose in a butter-smooth figure-eight tornado, spinning the haft about her arm and letting the recoil work for her. She hit the haft when the Grimm twisted away, sending the blade arcing upward in an underarm swing to plant through where the Grimm's soft throat should be. 

The blow stopped short with a jarring abruptness, the Grimm's clawed fingers curling around the haft. Ruby's aura seared warning down her spine, but she refused to yield ground. She fired Crescent Rose, tearing it free from the Grimm's grasp, finally skidding backwards several paces in a crouch.

She looked up at it then, breathless, as its rasping laughter echoed through the abandoned warehouse. Pain lanced through the back of her skull, so sharp she felt herself falter, pressing the heel of her palm to her temple as whispers started up in the darkness. _What--?_

The crackle of dark energy nearly blindsided her but for the blood-curdling thrill of pure _panic_ lancing through her aura. She moved on instinct, bursting back in a flood of petals, the constant repetition of a thousand nightmares honing her reactions over the years since she'd first fought--

Ruby fled into darkness, _away_ , her heart racing and loud in her ears but not enough to drown out the whispers, and she nearly gagged at the sudden smell of old blood. 

She stared into the darkness before her, every fibre in her body straining to resolve it--if only to reject the sick certainty as a lie concocted by her brain. 

_Like Weiss when she went missing,_ Ruby told herself desperately, struggling to swallow. _Like Damurang plucking words from my nightmares. This is--this is just the product of exhaustion. Just my nightmares getting the better of me because of what Damurang said._

Because it couldn't be her. It just couldn't. 

Ruby's grasp on Crescent Rose tightened until it trembled, a lifeline that gave her nothing. 

Blood magic twisted from the darkness, gleaming sick and oily in the flare's red light, tendrils of it gaping wide to snare her. Ruby sprang back, blind and panicked and just needing to _move_ , and her aura crackled in her eyes as she very nearly clipped her shoulder on a broken post looming in the dark. 

She veered hard, throwing herself upwards, twisting high into the air to evade it. It tracked her movements, seeking her like a beowolf consumed with bloodlust, just the way it always had--

Desperate, she whirled as it encircled her, Crescent Rose flashing in a three-sixty strike, dark dark ichor shredding beneath the blade. She landed badly, shockwaves of pain lacing through her joints only to be immediately forgotten in her terror. 

Through the broken skylights, lightning split the sky. The Grimm was gone now, but the creature no longer mattered. Ruby nearly stumbled, her every muscle seizing up in fear as a figure advanced from the shadows, lit up in red and lingering silver. 

_No._

###

The warehouse was in chaos as Weiss raced through the hallways, darting between automatons faster than they could process. Bullets and plasma blades blurred in her wake, and she forced herself faster, her vision blurring at the edges with exhaustion. 

_Ruby and Yang,_ she told herself, again and again, using their names to force herself far beyond her normal limits. 

Time dilation ran out far too quickly, the laws of physics returning to the world in a blur of sound and colour. With refinement looming ahead, and explosions still quaking the earth, Weiss conceded that perhaps it was for the best. Smoke hung hazy through the hallway, filling her lungs with the acrid smell of burning Dust and plastics.

The hall itself was strewn with the remains of dozens of automatons, and Weiss could easily pick out her team's handiwork--pinpoint headshots, splattered mechanical fluid and clean slices, all contrasting powerfully with scorches, metal riddled with buckshot and fragments of broken circuitry. 

It was carnage, but Weiss couldn't stop to examine it further as another explosion rocked the facility.

The final hallway opened up into hell, blast doors intended to contain the blaze torn open, and Weiss could feel the sheer heat from a dozen paces back. Refinement was burning, the Dust and the machinery inside reacting, and she felt a stab of horrified fear. Yang--Yang was slumped ahead of her, far too close to the flames and dangerous reactions. She was barely standing, even with a shoulder pressed to the wall, a dented, scorched riot still clenched in her metal hand. 

As Weiss skidded to a stop beside her, Yang turned half a pace, practically staggering in her exhaustion. Instinctive, Weiss reached out to steady her, for all that the smoke was making her own head swim. When she drew her hand away, blood soaked her grey leather glove. 

She looked back at Yang, alarmed. "Yang--"

"Don't worry about me," Yang ground out, and she coughed, blinking rapidly against the heat and smoke. The riot shield fell to the ground with a crash, and Yang drew a shuddering breath. "Ruby went ahead into refinement to fight Damurang. Tried to follow. The guard over there surprised me with a rocket to the back of my head. Started the blaze. Asshole."

Weiss looked to the SDC guard slumped further down the hallway, before turning back to refinement. It was hellfire in there, and ahead of them, there was another blast and surge of fire when another crate went up in flames. 

_Ruby._ Weiss' hand curled into fists, and she could barely stomach the choking terror rising up to strangle her. _Damurang made it out. What about Ruby?_

"Yeah," Yang replied to Weiss's silence, her expression bleak and haunted as she stared into the blaze. She was at her limit, her aura critically low. Even so, Yang still considered braving the flames for Ruby, no matter the danger or cost.

It was foolhardiness that beggared belief--and perhaps she and Yang _were_ far more alike than they openly conceded, because Weiss' decision was exactly the same.

"Blake's back in cold storage," Weiss told Yang, shielding her eyes at the shatter of more crystals within the blaze. "We found bodies, and then Damurang found us."

Yang's widened, and she lashed out at the wall with her metal fist, her violet eyes furious and afraid. She was just one person--and she was torn between her sister and her partner. Weiss didn't need Yang to voice it.

"Blake wants you to extract-- _now._ " Weiss inhaled, shallow from the smoke. "Don't worry. I'll find Ruby." 

Yang's jaw worked, and Weiss believed she might actually argue and either sprint into the flames or run after Blake for round three with Damurang--before she finally nodded. She reached out to clasp Weiss' shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. 

"Just don't do anything I wouldn't, Weiss. We've only got one of you." "

"Same to you." Weiss extended a hand, lighting a path of glyphs to lead Yang to safety--and very pointedly away from Blake and Damurang. "Go."

As Yang took the boost she'd been offered, Weiss looked back to the refinement blaze, swallowing hard. 

_For Ruby._

The scorching heat was practically a physical wall as Weiss darted into the refinement blaze, pulling her soaking scarf up over her mouth and nose. Smoke burned in her eyes, and despite her aura kicking into overdrive to clear her head and lungs, to keep her from immediately burning, she had to move fast. 

Weiss spotted a crate thrown on its side, the crystals spilled across the ground. One sparked and combusted, sending shockwaves through the ground and a fresh burst of heat her aura struggled to neutralise. She backed away from it, her breath rasping and shallow as she shielded her eyes, searching desperately for some sign of Ruby--dead or alive. 

The ground, she noted feverishly, wiping at her eyes with the back of her gloves. It was littered with stray red casings, but her partner was nowhere to be found. More metal groaned above her, giving way to flame. As she darted away from the avalanche of sparks and half-melted metal, she caught light streaming in from outside the warehouse, warped and hazy in the smoke. 

A hole, punched straight through the wall--by something moving at incredible speed. 

_Ruby._ Desperate to find what had become of her partner, her best friend, Weiss sprang forward, racing from glyph to glyph until she emerged from the hellfire that refinement had become in a burst of embers and smoke. 

The bright spotlights were dazzling compared to the depot's dark interior, and for a long moment, Weiss struggled to reorient herself. Blinking rapidly, she forced herself to see, to think, to solve the problem. The fence ahead of her was also torn, the posts ripped right out cement--

Weiss whirled, cursing as she heard shouting start up from somewhere along the depot's border, and she darted into the darkness beyond the broken fence. She followed the path of destruction through collapsed buildings, her heart in her throat. She wasn't sure what would be worse--to find Ruby badly hurt at the end of it, or--

 _Gone._

Weiss couldn't catch her breath as she surveyed the damage, to where Ruby had to have come to a sudden, horrifying halt. The building had practically shattered around the sheer impact, and as Weiss pressed shaking fingertips to the spiderweb of fractures over the wet cement, she swallowed. 

The wind-driven rain was like a lash on her skin as lightning split the sky, and Weiss stared about the ruins. She had to think rationally about this--there was still a chance Ruby was nearby, perhaps injured and hiding from any guards brave enough to search for her.

Praying her first instincts had been wrong, she shouted over the storm, "Ruby!"

There was no response, just the howl of the wind and the alarms from approaching reinforcements at the depot. Weiss cursed. What was she going to do? She had to find Ruby, _somehow_ , and in the dazzling spotlight as it flitted through the wreckage as guards searched for her, she saw petals. 

Too many, caught in the rubble despite the storm, and she paused. 

To create this many petals, Ruby would have had to have used great surge of her semblance. Weiss' first thought was that perhaps Damurang had pursued Ruby to finish the job, but this--it was too recent, and if Ruby had been dead or caught, Damurang would have used it against Weiss without mercy.

But--what _else_ could Ruby be running from? Ruby was as stubborn as it was possible to be when it came to her team, so it was hardly like her to flee. For Weiss, that left only one conclusion. Ruby had run _toward_ something. 

A chill of dread raced down Weiss' spine, and she remembered far too vividly what she'd talked about with Yang earlier that night about Ruby's lone-wolf habits in the most dangerous situations. Weiss had to find Ruby--and fast. 

Her summon was reflexive as her hands curled into fists, a lancer coalescing into existence in the air over her shoulder, shedding ghostly light over the place Ruby had vanished without a word. Weiss didn't look at it, steeling her shoulders and refusing to concede an inch to futile fear.

"Find Ruby," she told it in a low voice, and only when it flitted off into the night sky did she reach up to activate her mic. "Yang, Blake--Ruby's tracking something. I don't know what, but I'm going after her. You both need to get out of here, too."

 _God._ Weiss buried her face in her hands for a moment. When she found Ruby, she was going to give her _hell._

###

An indeterminate amount of time later, following the hum of machinery--fans, Blake had quickly recognised--had led her to what appeared to be a large ventilation room. Without a guard or security drone in sight, Blake had seized her chance, twisting around in the narrow space to kick the vent's covering grill free. 

It bounced hard against the wire cages covering the fans, clattering to the concrete floor with a loudness that had Blake flinching. Her breath bated and every muscle frozen, she waited nearly a full minute, listening for even a _hint_ that her presence had been detected. It felt like an eternity before she finally relaxed, slipping out and onto the floor in a crouch. 

Safe in the ventilation room, the blare of alarms and the shouts of SDC staff seemed muted, the chaos outside distant. At least the explosions had finally stopped, for all reek of smoke still pervaded the entire depot. 

Blake straightened, still listening, scrambling to get a sense of where she'd emerged. The room had to be close to distributions, she decided--close to the exit. With enough luck, she'd be able to slip out the roller doors and into the night, with the SDC none the wiser she was gone. 

Silent as a shadow, she slid into the darkened corridor outside the room, checking both directions with Gambol Shroud. Satisfied she was clear and exhaling sharply, she began to set out for distributions.

Distributions had devolved into chaos during the fighting, Blake noted when the warehouse opened up into the vast transport hub. Trucks had been flipped, crates lying open and haphazard, crystals of unrefined Dust spilled out over the ground. Despite her weariness and unease, Blake had to smile--Yang had promised them a distraction, and she'd taken the role very seriously. 

Blake cautiously crossed the wide, open space, flitting between overturned trucks for cover. As she reached the midpoint, however, she paused. An odd feeling stirred in her stomach, her aura prickling as she caught the sound of-- _something_ approaching. Loud and travelling at incredible speeds, the distinctive pump of shotgun gauntlets and peppering gunfire--

 _Yang?_ Blake's eyes widened as a gout of yellow fire erupted into distributions. Yang hurtled back from the blast, twisting through the air to evade gunfire and returning it with her own golden missile. The blast cratered the cement, shattering the metal bodies of half a dozen of the drones flooding into distributions but only scattering the rest. 

It wasn't enough, Blake realised as the remaining drones pursued Yang with relentless fury. Blake threw any remaining thoughts of stealth into the wind, racing to close the distance. She covered Yang's stumbled landing, smoothly bisecting two drones in Yang's blind spot before nailing the next one in the head with her pistol. 

She exhaled, quietly furious and protective, before she looked back to Yang. 

Yang stared at Blake, her bloodied and bruised expression shifting in the blink of an eye--anger crumpling into exhausted relief, and she turned on the remaining automatons with a burst of renewed fire. Her strikes crumpled chassis and reduced circuits to shards, electrical energy arcing about her gauntlets as the last one finally crashed to the floor. 

Finally, distributions was quiet but for the harsh rasp of Yang's breath and the distant sound of sirens. 

Yang staggered forward in a limping run, and Blake's own relief was a near painful twist in her chest as she met Yang halfway. Despite how Yang shook from exhaustion, she still rallied enough to attempt to sweep Blake into her arms. They both lurched sideways, Blake twisting her hands into Yang's jacket--as much to keep her girlfriend upright as to just hold her close. 

Swallowing the sudden tightness in her throat, Blake drew back, brushing Yang's cheek. 

As dangerous as the mission had so quickly become, she'd never doubted that Yang would find a way through it, as tough and resourceful as she'd always been. 

She still looked like she'd been through hell, her golden hair sodden and her eyes already blackening, her skin slick with sweat, water and blood. There were scorch marks on her jacket, and Blake hissed in sympathy as she saw where Yang had been clipped badly on her shoulder. 

Blake's lips thinned, and her relief faded into concern. Why was Yang _still here?_

"Yang, I told Weiss that you were to get clear--"

"I love you too," Yang replied, her smile wide and weary, not denying that Weiss had told her _exactly_ that. Abruptly, and Blake realised that it simply hadn't been enough to keep Yang from tearing through the warehouse looking for her anyway. 

Blake swallowed, and the danger be damned, she leaned in and pressed a kiss to Yang's lips. She didn't know what she was going to do with Yang--or what she'd ever do _without_ her.

"Come on," she said, tugging at Yang's scorched jacket sleeve. "We need to go."

Yang nodded, and despite her attempt to stifle it, Blake caught the low groan of pain beneath her breath as she struggled to keep pace. As they cleared the last of the trucks, however, Blake wanted to tear her hair out--the exit had been locked down with blast doors. 

Because of course, things would _never_ be easy. 

"No way out," Yang managed. Despite her exhaustion, she offered Blake a crooked smile. "So, what are your thoughts on making one, all our own?"

Blake returned the smile twofold as she replied, "I thought you'd never ask." 

Yang laughed, rolling her uninjured shoulder as she sized up the wall just to the left of the reinforced blast door barring their path. Wary, Blake kept an eye out through distributions, checking her weapon and Dust munitions with unconscious ease. Creating an exit would draw attention and throw them both under Damurang's unforgiving scrutiny. They had to be ready to run--and to fight. 

But Yang was almost at her limit. Blake could read it in the sag of her shoulders, the stumble in her steps, the hesitation just moments too long as she eyed off the section of wall she'd picked. How much did Yang have left to give? 

Blake didn't have time to voice her worry as Yang sent another missile of energy with a sharp jab. It detonated against the wall, blasting bricks and mortar out in a catastrophic shower of embers and shrapnel. Yang bounded through the gap in a burst from her gauntlets before Blake could wrest point from her, and she had little choice but to scramble to follow.

They emerged into the muddy loading yard, beneath the searing spotlights--where this whole disaster of a mission had begun, Blake noted with a weary realisation. It seemed like a lifetime ago. 

The yard was empty now, the shipping containers abandoned to the raging storm. Blake could hear furious activity from the other side of the depot, SDC crews struggling to get the refinement blaze under control. Not wanting to push their luck with any further delays, Blake nodded over her shoulder to Yang, and the two of them began to jog for the fence, their freedom finally within reach.

From somewhere up top of the warehouse, however, only brought to her ears by the whip of wind when it shifted, Blake caught something. She paused, frowning, before fear lanced through her gut--the sound of rockets being loaded. 

"Yang--!" Blake cried out, but there was nowhere near enough time to act. Desperate, she flipped backwards as she heard the rocket launch, a shadow splitting from her to barrel into Yang in a last-ditch attempt throw her clear. The last shreds of her aura galvanised as she braced for impact.

The resulting blast threw Blake backwards with violent fury, her aura shattering and finally lost as she slid back through the mud. She only managed to draw a painful, shuddering breath when she came to a stop, her ears ringing, her skull aching and the tang of blood at the back of her throat. 

_Yang?_ She pushed herself to her stomach, her vision pitching, trying to focus on the blur of gold despite the way the world spun. The blast had thrown Yang into a nearby shipping container, the metal dented brutally beneath the force of the impact--and standing over her, Damurang had reappeared in a burst of white magic. 

In her hands, the spotlights gleamed down the barrel of the gun. 

Blake tried to shout for Yang, reaching desperately for where Gambol Shroud had been torn from her grasp. She couldn't hear, and Damurang's lips moved in vicious snarls. 

Blake couldn't do anything, and suddenly, she was dragged onto her back. The featureless, mirrored visor of an SDC guard filled her vision--just before his boot smashed into the side of her head.

###

"This--this isn't _real_." Ruby's grasp on Crescent Rose was trembling, her head _spinning_. "It's not you. I _killed_ you!"

Salem had died back in her realm. Ruby had felt her ribs shear, the hot wash of blood on her hands, the lingering stench of burning flesh as silver fire had slowly fizzled out. She'd felt Salem's final gasp, felt her grow heavy, because it had only been then that Ruby had wrenched her sword from the witch's chest, victorious--and horrified. 

Her magic had faded, the realm within her mountain crumbling inwards upon her death. Ruby hadn't known much after that, shellshocked as she'd been. The only thing she'd been sure of was Salem's final moments, and she'd relived that moment in her nightmares countless times. 

_Death is never what it seems, my dear,_ Ruby remembered Ozpin telling her in Oscar's voice, and she staggered back a step as the figure stepped into the flare's circle of light. 

Salem was silent as the dead, her face concealed by her hood. She lifted a clawed hand in the red light, dark power crackling about her blackened fingertips in a show of the power that had stolen so many lives. A reminder of every horror she'd wrought--and every horror she'd promised Ruby as the price of failure. 

Could she really be _here_? Ruby whirled as Salem threw out a hand, barely catching dark lightning on her spear's haft, turning it aside with a wrench. Her aura blared warning, a dozen threats coalescing from the shadows and ichor lashing into her blindspots at terrifying speed. 

Her scythe blurred but there were far too many, and she threw herself back, twisting high in air to get clear. Agonising dark magic crackled across her aura, testing but never quite breaking it, and Ruby landed badly. She tasted blood at the roof of her mouth, and she rolled to avoid the next lash of ichor, again forced to give ground she couldn't afford to lose. 

Her breath harsh in her ears, she forced herself to re-engage. Salem--Salem had _loved_ to talk, after all. 

"Is that Grimm one of yours?" Ruby demanded, launching an aggressive whirlwind counter. Salem turned it aside, sending her back with a concussive blast of magic to Ruby's chest. Hot, desperate anger bubbled up, and Ruby skidded back across the ground, willing her aura to hold out. "Is that why it was watching me? Is that why it brought me here? Because you won't stay dead?!"

There was no answer--just cold, implacable silence as Salem paused in the fading circle of light. Frozen, Ruby watched her lift her hands, watched her push back her hood. Her red eyes gleamed as she merely watched Ruby straighten, and ichor ran beneath her chalk-white skill like veins, stark in the red light. 

Seeing her now, undeniably--it was every horror Ruby had imagined, every persistent fear she'd believed so irrational. A part of her had always been convinced that the other boot would drop, that her victory had all been a lie. That her fight had never been over. That she'd snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and lose everything she loved.

 _I have to protect them,_ Ruby thought feverishly, constantly circling back to every horror Salem had promised for her team. _Weiss and Yang and Blake--_

"I don't care anyway. I killed you once," Ruby gritted out, and her voice a broken rasp in the quiet. "I'll do it again."

Salem smiled. Ruby had never seen her _smile_ , and it was every bit a horrifying as she could have imagined. 

Heat coiled in Ruby's flesh, clawing its way beneath her skin, begging to be unleashed alongside reactive, uncontrollable anger. She was afraid of what would happen if she embraced it--but worse, she was afraid of what would happen if she _didn't_. 

It ignited with a thought, a spark to Dust, boundless energy flooding through her until there was silver fire in her lungs, in her bones, in her blood. When she exhaled, it was in her breath, sizzling in the freezing, damp air. Exhaustion fled her. With a snarl and a whirl of Crescent Rose, Ruby lunged for Salem, desperate to stop her, desperate to end the fight. 

Things were different this time, however. At the end of the Crisis, Ruby had been driven by a fury she'd never imagined possible of herself. But she wasn't angry this time. 

Ruby deflected a blinding lash of ichor with a scythe alight with silver fire, tongues of it licking from every joint and bolt. She roared as Salem merely extended a clawed hand, catching each strike with a barrier of contemptuous dark magic. 

The resulting burst of energy from the impact was laced with silver fire and burning rose petals, and Ruby's cloak whipped back from the force. Her jaw clenched, shock jolting through her as she locked eyes with Salem. Last time, she'd more than matched Salem, broken her magic with pure, fiery fury. Last time, she'd had an edge. 

That was no longer the case. As Ruby strained against the barrier, Crescent Rose began to tremble.

Baring her teeth, Ruby reversed her cut, whirling faster and faster beneath the next burst of dark magic, desperate to close the gap. Fire whipped out from her scythe with every strike, scorching the ground, sizzling the air until all Ruby could smell was the warring scent of fire against that of old blood, all she could taste was ash. 

Despite the fury, Salem hardly bothered with evasion. She moved just the way she did in Ruby's every nightmare, blood magic arcing from her ichor-blackened fingertips, drawing from her body, telekinetically controlled as it twisted to smother and bind Ruby. 

It arced for Ruby from her every blind spot. No matter how fast she moved, how she burned and cut swathe around her, there was always more of it. It sliced at her aura, still testing, forcing her to devote more and more attention to fending it off. 

Ruby forced herself to move faster, heedless of the dangerously low ebb of her aura, the bone-deep exhaustion blurring her vision. Her strikes grew more and more brutal, until she was nothing more than a channel for her fire, nothing more than an extension for Crescent Rose. 

She had to do more. She _had_ to be enough. But Ruby was afraid, and it wasn't just what she feared Salem would do if she failed. 

Ruby was afraid of what she'd need to to do, just to stop her. 

She held onto her sense of self with white-knuckled desperation, and that was exactly why this time, she was _not_ enough. Her attention divided, as afraid of herself as much as she was of Salem--her every strike was so easily deflected, silver fire be damned. 

Even that strength faltered eventually, and she battered at Salem's defences until cement shattered beneath them, only to be stopped short yet again. 

_Holding back,_ Damurang had claimed, as cruel as Salem in the dark. Ruby staggered as Salem blasted her back with a contemptuous flick of her hand. Panting, her hands trembling over the set of catches for Crescent Rose's sword form, Ruby hesitated. 

She _was_ holding back. She'd fought so long against what she'd done back then, to refuse to let it define her. It seemed that now, she had no choice but to do it all over again. _She had no choice._

Ruby still hesitated, her hands on the catch of her weapon. 

_I can't,_ she realised with horrifying clarity, her breath coming as a sob. _I can't lose myself again._

Yang and Weiss and Blake--and all of Mantle, all of the world--they'd be the ones to wear the cost of it. All because she hadn't finished the job the first time, all because she couldn't close the deal. All of her struggles, all of it for _nothing_ , and the thought of it nearly broke Ruby. Silver fire gutted out, and she fell to a knee. 

More ichor lashed for her, and blindly, she threw Crescent Rose out in a desperate deflection. But there was more, always more, and the horrors in her head were getting the better of her. Panting, Ruby looked up. 

Salem was still smiling.

Crescent Rose was torn from her faltering grasp, and it went spinning through the air to sink into the crumbling cement wall just outside the circle of light. Ruby tracked it, desperate, but her vision swam abruptly, and her scythe planted as a sword. 

She blinked, pressing the heel of her palm to her temple as she struggled to think through the sudden surge of pain. No, it was a _scythe_ \--no, none of it made sense--

Ruby stumbled away in a burst of semblance but more ichor reached from the shadows. It seized about her as she crashed to her knees, binding her arms behind her, wrapping suffocatingly tight around her bruised throat. 

Ruby's thoughts blanked, and all she could do was watch as Salem approached. 

"How?" Ruby forced out, despite the near strangling tightness of the ichor about her neck. She wanted to strain against her bonds, but now? She seemed so frozen to the point that she trembled. 

"Tell me, Ruby Rose," Salem said, her voice dark and cruel. Her lip curled in disgust as she looked down on Ruby, as if sorely disappointed in this final stand. "For all your vaunted ideals and naive heroism--what do you now see, when you look at yourself in the mirror?"

 _A monster,_ Ruby remembered telling Weiss. Here and now, looking into Salem's eyes, she still believed it.

###

Blake groaned as something metallic and muted clanked, once and then twice. She groaned again, and while the darkness and silence of unconsciousness seemed so sweet, she knew better than to embrace it, instead clawing her way back to consciousness. Pain lanced through her skull, sharper now, and her breath hissed out between her teeth. 

Forcing her eyes open--even just a fraction--felt like monumental effort. She sagged, her cheek pressing against something metal and cold, the world around her reduced to blurry pitch blackness and searing white that shifted and swayed without rest. 

Sound seemed like a distant memory, fading in and out again in constant waves. She drew a sharp, painful breath, trying to reach up to rub at her eyes, to cradle her aching head, but she was stopped short by the snag of freezing metal cuffs about her wrists. 

"--there's evidence of intruders having made their way into the ruins directly west of here," a man's voice was telling somebody, out of sight but not far away. "Toward the fence." 

"These two had a co-conspirator." Damurang's clipped tones were distinctive despite the distortion, and Blake felt a surge of weary panic suffuse her chest at the sound of it. "Rose--red cloak. Scythe. Very hard to miss."

Even as disconnected as Blake felt, she frowned, resting her cheek back against the metal surface, trying to draw clarity from the freezing bite of it on her skin. Weiss--Damurang knew Weiss had been here, and she'd omitted that vital detail entirely. 

_Why?_ Blake wondered, and she swallowed thickly. She forced her eyes open again, trying to regain her bearings, trying to _think._ Yang was with her, she realised with a flood of relief, handcuffed across from her. Yang was out cold--but she was alive. They were both in the back of a car--some sort of pseudo-militia van. 

"In the meantime, you're to take these two to the Mantle blacksite for further questioning," Damurang was telling the guard. "They can stew on their futures while we contain the blaze."

 _A blacksite,_ Blake repeated silently. This was bad. She inhaled, refusing to be deterred by the pain, testing her cuffs again. No good, and she knew without checking that the SDC had already liberated her of her lock picks. 

"Yang?" she tried, squinting across at the blur across the back of the van. There was no response, and Blake exhaled, painful. 

This was _really_ bad, and desperate, she tried to claw her way back to full consciousness, toward salvaging the situation. An SDC blacksite--it seemed as though Damurang really was taking them there to die, but at the edge of Blake's hearing, she caught more orders starting up in Damurang's earpiece. 

Again, it was authoritative, male and oddly familiar, even if Blake couldn't quite place the voice. 

"--yes. Sir, we've secured them. Procedure dictates--" Damurang cut off, and to Blake's tired mind, she sounded annoyed. "Yes, sir, I understand. Yes. Very well, sir. I'll see to it." 

There were a few beats of silence on Damurang's end. Blake winced as something--possibly a fist--slammed into the side of the van. 

"Our orders have been given an... update. You're to hand Belladonna and Xiao Long over to the Mantle authorities. Apparently we're to do this the inconvenient way." 

Blake felt almost dizzy with relief--this, she could deal with. She and Yang could handle whatever Mantle's authorities threw at them, no matter how many of them ended up being on Jacques' payroll.

"For the rest of you. You will find and apprehend Rose _immediately_ , along with any remaining co-conspirators she has with her. Do not fail me."

The door to the van slammed shut, plunging Blake and Yang into darkness.

###

"The will to fight has fled you already?" Salem asked, her eyes narrowing in thought as she considered Ruby, that strange smile fading. "Perhaps I expected too much."

Ruby's eyes widened, and she strained for the fire in her veins, swallowing hard she only found burned-out ash. Cold doubt welled up in her chest before she could stifle it--maybe it was as Salem said, that the will to fight was simply gone. 

Just the thought made her sick, and there was no way it could possibly be true.

But Ruby was alone in this warehouse, and even if she'd been able to free herself--where was there left to run, when Salem could seemingly cheat death? She had to fight, though. She had to do something to stop Salem, the thought a constant repeat in her head. 

Refusing to be cowed, Ruby glared up at Salem, baring her teeth. 

"That's better." Salem's tone was amused, and she extended a clawed hand. The ichor moved beneath her flesh in nightmarish pulses. "The blood is always so much better when prey struggles."

Salem's magic constricted, the air forced from Ruby's lungs in a wheeze. She tried to draw breath, coming up empty--but even amidst the horror, something was... off. 

Defiance had never pleased Salem, and crushing it to nothing but despair was something she'd made an art of. The way she spoke was impersonal, as though the years of protracted, bitter conflict between them had ceased to exist. 

As though Salem didn't remember what she'd threatened, what Ruby herself had done. 

She wasn't furious, as she should have been. She hadn't even mentioned Ozpin, where rightly Salem would have gloated. With the growing constriction of dark magic about Ruby's throat, however, she struggled to form a coherent _thought_ , let alone a plan, but--this _was_ Salem, wasn't it? 

"What's--what's going on?" Ruby forced out, the words a strangled wheeze in her throat as she stared up at Salem. "What does that mean--?"

Salem didn't answer, bending smoothly, and Ruby abruptly realised her time had run out. Two blackened fingertips settled on Ruby's pulse, her head yanked roughly to the side. Struggling to breathe, she flinched as she heard something metallic and bladed form from the ichor. Sparks of panic seared through her aura, but she couldn't see it, couldn't _move_ as it pressed to her throat-- 

Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby caught the glow of something ghostly flitting down one of the warehouse's branching hallways. Her eyes widened.

 _Weiss?_ she realised, equal parts relief and cold terror. 

Ruby threw herself back as the knife moved to open her throat, landing badly but clear. Behind her, the warehouse wall splintered beneath the summoned knight's charge, and coughing as she forced air into her oxygen-starved lungs, she was showered in decaying debris. 

Ahead of her, Salem hissed, inhuman and enraged. Ruby desperately searched the circle of light for her, but Weiss had positioned herself between them. Her back was to Ruby, her white hair and singed jacket lit up from the glow from the knight at her side. There was a length of warped rebar in her hand, the telltale gleam of aura reinforcement running down its length--but without Myrtenaster and lacking her Dust, she was horrifyingly unarmed to deal with a threat like the Grimm. 

Like Salem. 

Ruby stared wildly about the darkness, but Salem--Salem was gone. _Where?_

"Weiss--" Ruby tried, her voice rasping from her abused throat. Swallowing, she tried again. " _She_ \--she's--" 

The words wouldn't seem to form no matter how she tried, but the ichor binding her began to relax. Feverishly, she rolled free. It was shocking how weak her muscles felt, the exhaustion sinking right down to her bones. She forced herself to her hands and knees, trying to blink away the spots in her eyes. 

At the sudden touch to her shoulder, Ruby flinched, almost pulling away before she realised it was Weiss, who'd knelt beside her. When had that happened? She inhaled, as a loss for words as she stared up at her partner. There were bruises on Weiss' cheek, a cut on her chin, and she was soaked to the bone as she brushed the nape of Ruby's neck. 

The touch thawed the ice in Ruby's muscles, and she reached out, clasping at her partner's sleeve like a lifeline. The smell of perfume cut through the pervasive scent of ash and old blood, and the iron panic constricting Ruby's chest began to slowly relax. 

"Thank god you're okay," Weiss said, and the relief in her voice would have been enough to send Ruby reeling--if the lack of oxygen hadn't already gotten there first. She'd never quite seen Weiss look at her like that--like-- 

She couldn't find the words, and beyond Weiss' shoulder, the knight shattered in a shower of ethereal glass as the Grimm's claws tore through it. Weiss' expression closed over, her eyes narrowing as she rose to her feet, looking back at the Grimm. 

_Just the Grimm,_ Ruby realised with a lurch of fear. Where had Salem gone? Salem had been here and she _bore the proof_ on her flesh, and Weiss was unarmed and had no idea what she'd stepped into. 

"No, _don't_ \--" 

Weiss twitched at Ruby's choked words but still didn't look back, advancing to stand between them with steely determination. Her fingertips glowed white and gold light as glyphs bloomed in the air around her, her weight shifting to mimic her stance with Myrtenaster, rebar readied. As tired as she was, Ruby could barely follow Weiss' first lunge. 

Even though speed was as natural to Ruby as breathing, Weiss was just as fast in close quarters--and just as dependant on momentum, awareness and being fast enough to pre-empt her enemies. Weiss twisted and dodged, moving like lightning around the Grimm, whirling in to strike with her makeshift weapon and out before the creature could rend her with its claws, draw her in to consume. 

But Weiss was tired, running on fumes, and even Ruby could tell she was slowing and making mistakes--a dodge just barely getting her clear, or a strike missing the mark by a fraction of an angle. The stakes in this fight were _real,_ Ruby knew that far too keenly, and now Weiss had put herself on the line to protect her. 

Weiss didn't understand the danger she was in--all because of Ruby. 

Ruby forced herself to her knees, and out the corner of her eye, she caught movement--a shift in the shadows, a whisper at the edge of her hearing. Ruby's heart began to pound as she stared into the pitch blackness, and the whispers came again, insistent. 

_Salem,_ Ruby realised with a lurch, and she caught the whip of a cloak beyond Weiss' blind spot. She could practically see Salem's deadly promise of vengeance playing out before her eyes, the image of dark lightning lancing through Weiss' chest suddenly so convincingly vivid in her mind's eye that Ruby felt herself panic. _No!_

Ruby seized on the splintered remains of her strength, flashing forward in an uncontrolled burst of speed to where her scythe was still planted in the remains of the wall. Her head spun, and for a precious instant she couldn't spare, she had to steady herself against the wall, blinking the dizziness from her eyes. 

Crescent Rose's gears and joints smoked, the metal still hot from silver fire. Ruby had no time left to doubt herself or her abilities as she wrenched it free and lunged for the threat in the dark, her own safety and well-being thrown away as those whispers in the dark grew to fever-pitch. 

"Ruby--!"

Ruby's wild swing met nothing but air, and her eyes widened in surprise. Still caught in her semblance, the world caught in slow motion, she stared over her shoulder to where the Grimm's flaming eye-sockets bored into her soul. It twisted aside from Weiss' desperate thrust, flashing across the ground for Ruby instead. 

She tried to back peddle, firing Crescent Rose in a jarring reversal to stifle her momentum. It wasn't enough, the hail mary manoeuvre only leaving her terrifyingly unbalanced--all she could do was watch as claws flashed in the red light. 

The Grimm's strike should have been true, easily rending Ruby from collarbone to hip, but in a flash of golden white light, Weiss was between them again. Weiss' hasty defensive glyph shattered from the force of the blow, the Grimm's claws instead catching on the length of rebar between her hands in a shower of sparks. 

Weiss cried out but didn't give ground, only falling to a knee as the Grimm bore down on her, its snarling rumble the sound of tearing flesh. White light flashed out the corner of Ruby's eyes, the summoned boarbatusk coalescing and smashing its armoured skull into the Grimm's chest in the space of an instant. 

The headlong charge pinned the creature against the warehouse wall in a crash of breaking brick and mortar, and surging to her feet, Weiss threw out a hand. 

A massive glyph bloomed under the Grimm, barely fully-forming before exploding inwards in a tortured screech. The ground opened up, broken cement and collapsing foundations giving way to a massive cavern--taking the Grimm and boarbatusk with it. A stench rose, and Ruby's stomach nearly rebelled. The sewer system? 

Weiss threw out both hands then, a row of glyphs forming on each of the warehouse's walls, all of them spinning in rapid overcharge before exploding inward just the same as the first. The walls crumbled as their only support beams were very suddenly removed, the building crashing in on itself and into the hole Weiss' glyph had created--burying it and the Grimm in several dozen tons of concrete and steel. 

Breathless, Ruby looked up, belatedly realising that at some point, the summoned knight had rematerialised. The arm it had held over her was the only reason she hadn't been crushed by falling debris.

But--but the Grimm was _gone,_ not defeated and certainly not dead. So too was Salem. 

No longer frozen in fear but feverish in her desperation not to have wasted this hard-won chance, Ruby rushed forward to the mountain of debris, nearly falling over herself as she neared. 

She stared at it for a long, wild moment, before she slammed her fist against the rubble. Just like that, they'd blown what might have been their only chance--but more than anything, she was furious with _herself_ that she'd been so terrified, been so outmatched. 

This--this was on her, she told herself, gasping. So too were any lives the Grimm and Salem now took--

"You are such an _idiot_!" Weiss snarled, shoving Ruby hard enough to send her stumbling. There was a ragged, furious edge to her voice Ruby hadn't heard in a long time, and it cut through her bitter self-recrimination like a knife. "What the hell were you thinking--"

" _She was here_!" Ruby roared back, her anger exploding outward as she gestured wildly at the pile of wreckage. 

Weiss' eyes were icy, her expression furious--with a bitter, hurt twist, Ruby realised expecting understanding from her now had been a mistake. 

Ruby's head began to ache, and her voice breaking, she forced out, "This was our _only chance_ and you just--"

"You could have _died_ , Ruby! If I had been just a moment later--" Weiss inhaled, the sound of it shuddering. Her anger drained away, and she stared at Ruby for a long moment. "If I..."

Weiss groaned, her breath catching, and she pressed her hand to her shoulder. In the fading red light, the alertness began to fade from her eyes. 

Ruby's anger and self-recriminations immediately died, and like the flip of a switch, losing the Grimm--losing Salem--ceased to matter entirely. 

"Weiss?" Ruby asked, starting forward, suddenly wholly uncertain. "What's wrong?"

Weiss twitched away from her, still clasping at her shoulder. "I--I'm fine. I don't want--" 

Whatever she'd been going to say was lost as she staggered, and Ruby flashed across the distance to catch her despite barely having the strength to keep them both upright. But that didn't matter--not with the way Weiss trembled, now so close that Ruby could smell the tang of fresh blood in the air, overriding the scent of her perfume once again. 

Panicking, Ruby carefully set her down, resting her back against the pillar before flashing forward to take hold of the near-spent flare. She held it up to examine Weiss--the leather jacket gaped open at the shoulder, across Weiss' collarbone. 

_The Grimm's claws when her glyph broke,_ Ruby realised with a jolt. 

She'd been hurt, saving Ruby not just the once but _twice_. Blood was welling under Ruby's scorched and ruined gloves, and the world and her own exhaustion faded from importance as she stared down at Weiss, her breath harsh and hard. 

Her partner was bleeding--all because of her.

She'd been so distracted with the Grimm, with the ghost of Salem brought real, with defending _herself_ that she hadn't even realised what her actions had cost Weiss. What sort of partner _was_ she? 

Weiss' breath hissed in between her teeth, her jaw locking as Ruby tried to get a closer look at the cut, trying to see the damage. "It burns."

"I know. It'll be okay, just--" Ruby cut off, because she _didn't_ know anything of the sort and yet it tumbled out anyway. The alternative was just unthinkable. 

She hesitated, her hands shaking. They didn't know anything about the Stalker Grimm, only that its attacks were as varied as it could possibly be. Was this just blood loss, or were the claws poisoned? Was it something else? The ichor in Lawson's injuries reared up in her mind's eye, and Ruby swallowed. 

"Shit." Weiss' breath was sharp and shallow, her eyes squeezed shut as she she reached out for Ruby and seized the edge of her cloak. Ruby stared at Weiss, at a loss as she tried to stem the flow of blood from her shoulder with just her hands. 

She needed time, space, _supplies_ to get this under control, but she had none of that. Just her cloak and her own bitter regrets as she'd fulfilled her own damn fears!

"It was a stupid, _stupid_ move," Weiss groaned as Ruby applied more pressure, biting down hard on her lower lip and tipping her head back against the broken pillar. "But I'm--just glad you're okay."

There was an odd, growing haziness to her voice that sent alarm spiking through Ruby's stomach. 

"No, no, stay awake for me. Just. Stay awake, Weiss." She lifted a hand, clasping Weiss' face and shaking her, trying to keep her alert. Her voice choked as she forced out, "Don't you dare leave me, after everything we've done!"

Weiss didn't answer, sagging in exhaustion, her painful breath a rasp. 

Sick with fear, Ruby paused, listening over the sound of rain and storm, over the ragged draw of Weiss' breath. She could hear voices, sirens, automatons and dogs--the SDC, Ruby guessed, searching for them both amongst the abandoned warehouses. 

She nearly blacked out from exhaustion and pain as she struggled to lift Weiss, now fully unconscious. They had to get out of there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you think I'm a little salty about canon beating me to the punch on certain events in this chapter, you'd be right. :|
> 
> Also apologies for the delay on this one, real life suplexed me like five times in a row during the writing of this. Also I started Warframe (XB1) and it's eaten my priorities just a pinch.


	15. Into the Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Injured and on the run, it's all Ruby can do to keep herself and Weiss one step ahead of the SDC. She can't do it alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sneezes* pardon my dust.

In a dark and unfamiliar city, Ruby's only guide back to the central Mantle districts was the growing frequency of neon lights. In her exhaustion, they swam vivid against the night, their colours running together and blending in the rain. She blinked against it, trying to rally the force of will to focus but coming up empty-handed yet again. 

Everything hurt. It didn't matter that simply putting one foot in front of the other seemed impossible--she had to keep them moving. Somehow, she managed to struggle down another darkened alleyway, and then another, her breath a raw, frozen rasp, her every muscle trembling. 

Weiss had been fading in and out of consciousness for the past block, and with her uninjured arm slung about Ruby's shoulders, she was barely more than a dead weight to manage. With the SDC's automatons and guards filtering out through the ruined district they'd left behind, there _was_ no other choice--

The tip of Ruby's boot caught on a raised, jagged edge of pavement. She stumbled, a groan slipping out between her teeth as she skidded dangerously in the slick of rain.

"Shit--" Weiss choked out, an agonised hiss, and the weight about Ruby's shoulders lurched dangerously. 

Ruby managed to plant her feet before Weiss could send them both crashing to the ground. Gasping, she adjusted her desperate hold on Weiss' belt with fingers that had long since gone numb. 

"You gotta hold on a bit longer, okay?" Ruby told her, lightheaded from the effort. Weiss didn't reply, her breath rapid, shallow, _painful._

Ruby looked up, blinking away wind-driven rain from her eyes. She had to keep moving--but to where? What could she possibly do, when it felt like there was nowhere left to run? This was all her fault, she told herself, bitter self-recrimination starting up in the pit of her stomach. She'd let Damurang trigger the automatons, she'd allowed Damurang to best her, and she'd followed the Grimm head first into a trap. 

Weiss had put herself on the line, all because of Ruby's _stupid choices,_ and now Weiss paid the price for her mistakes. 

"Over there." Weiss' low words were almost lost in the brutal whip of the wind. She shifted, instinctively trying to ease her weight on Ruby's shoulders despite the way her knees buckled. "On the corner." 

Forcing aside the dark spiral of her thoughts, Ruby tracked the direction of Weiss' gaze. It was nothing more than a flickering neon sign and a door--a hunter bar. Ruby hadn't even noticed it there, hidden in the divide between the ruined buildings of the border district and Mantle's eastern sector. 

It was a dry, safe spot to hide, just for a while as she saw to Weiss' injuries, tried to plan their next move. It was a goal, and Ruby could work with that. 

"Right," she told Weiss, forcing a smile that her partner wouldn't see. "Good thinking, Weiss." 

Before she could take a step, Ruby paused, a sound whipped to her by the howl of the wind--the telltale blare of SDC automatons. Their pursuers were close and only getting closer, and a feverish estimation put them just a few blocks back now. 

_Time's running out,_ she told herself, and it was motivation enough to somehow keep moving. 

Ruby was breathless by the time she got them both to the door, her vision blurring dangerously with exhaustion as she grasped blindly for the doorhandle, her cold-numbed fingers scrabbling for purchase. She shouldered it open with a loud _bang,_ that sound of it reverberating over the storm. 

_Stairs,_ Ruby noted vaguely, choking despair rising up in her chest as she stared at the darkened interior. _The bar's on the top level, isn't it?_

In the darkened district beyond, Ruby caught the sound of crumbling cement, the feeling of it dragging like nails across what what little she'd been able to regroup of her aura. Panicked, she cast a look over her shoulder, scanning the oppressive night. 

The SDC's automaton guard force, or was it something far worse? The memory of the Grimm's branching antlers seared in her mind, but with Weiss in her arms she couldn't yet reach for Crescent Rose--

Above her, the wooden stairs creaked. Ruby looked up with a painful jolt.

"Holy shit," someone breathed, a mix of both surprise and horror.

Ruby stared at him, numb and scarcely comprehending his shouts for help as he clambered down the staircase toward them. He immediately took Weiss' weight from her arms, so _easily_. Despite the fresh wave of exhaustion suddenly rushing to her head, Ruby still reached out for her partner, desperate to stay close. 

It was no use, the roar of static in her ears building until blackness nibbled at the edges of her vision. Dizzy, Ruby fell to a knee, bracing herself with a forearm against the doorframe. Above them, there were more people--when had that happened? For a long moment, Ruby stared up into a huntress' face without seeing. 

More hunters. More help.

Behind her and disturbingly hazy in her weariness, Ruby caught another blare of automaton sirens as the SDC's search net was cast wider. The sound of it settled into her bones, seized at the scattered fragments of her attention, galvanising her. She accepted the huntress' hand, only belatedly realising how long ago it had been offered. 

"We're being chased," she told the huntress, and even with the woman's support, she couldn't seem to stay steady on her feet. "Me and my partner. We need someplace to hide. Please. Just for a while--"

"We've got your back," the huntsman said--the one that had taken Weiss. He looked to the woman at Ruby's side, his eyes narrowing a fraction. "Right?"

"At this point, I doubt I could stop you trying," the huntress replied, and even Ruby caught the note of exasperation in her voice. She looked back over Ruby's shoulder for a moment, scanning the darkness with a critical eye. "Get that one upstairs. Tell Nerys she needs to sober up and take a look."

Ruby watched the huntsman readjust his hold on Weiss, watched him take the stairs two at a time. She pressed a hand to the side of her head. His gait seemed familiar, but Ruby couldn't focus long enough to figure it out.

Instead, she wiped her rain-soaked hair from her eyes, looking to the huntress lingering at her side.

"Thank you." 

The huntress didn't reply.

By the time Ruby had made her slow, painful way to the top of the staircase, the bar's main lights had been switched on, throwing the cramped space into stark relief. The air was hazy with trapped smoke, sharp with the smell of booze. The bartender leaned against his countertop, seeming untroubled by the fact that two bleeding huntresses had so suddenly appeared.

There was just a handful of hunters, the place quieter Ruby would have guessed. They were clustered around a small table, tucked in the corner beyond the worn-out billiards table.

_Weiss._

In the yellowed overhead light, Weiss' complexion was even paler than Ruby had dared fear, and she'd sunken back into her chair. Ruby watched her jaw clench and unclench as another huntress, knelt at her side, began to roll back the shredded leather jacket from her shoulder. Weiss cried out as the jacket was removed, the sound of it forced between clenched teeth, clutching at the wooden table--

Ruby's stomach plummeted. She wasn't sure how or even _when_ she'd crossed the room, but suddenly she was grasping Weiss' free hand. Her partner's returning squeeze was so forceful Ruby felt like her bones nearly creaked from it. 

"Hey," she breathed, rubbing her gloved palm across the back of Weiss' hand and knuckles, too afraid of Weiss fading out on her again to be gentle. "I promise, I've got you, okay? Stay with me." 

Weiss' eyes cracked open at Ruby's words, and after a beat she managed, "Funny. I'm not exactly in a state to traipse off anywhere without you."

It was a bleak, lopsided joke, but Ruby still felt a swell of dizzying relief at Weiss' attempt to reassure her with it. Fleeting, she rested her forehead against Weiss' gloved knuckles and drew a shaky breath.

The huntress examining Weiss' shoulder--Nerys--shot Ruby a glance, her knife flashing as she cut away a section of Weiss' bloody shirtsleeve. 

"Grimm?" she asked, and Weiss nodded just once, her jaw a line of tension. Nerys rocked back on her heels, looking toward the first huntress, who at some point had made her way to the spot just beyond Ruby's shoulder. "It's not too deep, but it needs cleaning. Stitches, if we can--"

"We don't _have_ the time--" Weiss broke off, gasping at the very deliberate press of a damp cloth to her shoulder. 

Sympathetic, Ruby rubbed her hand again, chewing on her own lower lip as she watched Nerys work. Weiss wasn't wrong--how much time did they have, before the SDC and its automatons were on their doorstep? How far could they trust these hunters, even if they held no love for the SDC? 

"Can you stop the bleeding?" Ruby asked Nerys, an odd lump forming in her throat when the cloth came away dark with Weiss' blood. She averted her eyes, focusing on Nerys instead. "Just enough so we can keep moving. We can't stay here."

Nerys frowned a fraction, her lips thinning as she stared at something in the towel before tossing it back in the bowl of water at her knee. Leaning in to examine Weiss' shoulder again, she ventured, "Farr?"

"Do what you can with what you have." The first huntress--Farr--settled the small of her back against the wooden table just to Ruby's left. She crossed her arms against her chest, casting Ruby a sharp look up and down. "This... Grimm. Is it what you're running from?" 

"We fought it. My partner--" Ruby hesitated, because the words _Salem_ and _returned_ in a single sentence would only cause panic. She wet her lips. "She dropped a building on it."

She looked back to Weiss, her heart twisting at the all-too vivid memory of Weiss sending the warehouse down around their heads, all of it to save Ruby. They'd escaped that nightmare with their lives, and all Ruby had done was lash out in anger.

"The SDC--that's another matter entirely," Weiss said. Through her hold of her hand, Ruby could feel her trembling. 

"A Grimm and the SDC," Farr said after a long moment, a carefully neutral note to her voice. Ruby looked back to her, confused, and Farr nodded to something just beyond the bar. "It seems like you've been raising hell tonight." 

Taking the hint, Ruby tracked the direction of her gaze. A TV had been mounted to the rear wall, and splashed across its screen was an Atlesian news feed-- 

Ruby froze, her eyes going wide, the significance of _what_ the feed displayed hitting her with all the force of an alpha ursa's haymaker. Panning shots of a burning depot, spliced together with live footage of Mantle emergency services as they struggled to control the blaze. Even as she watched, her heart in her throat, stores of Dust erupted, sending plumes of electrical-laced fire blooming ever higher into the sky. 

That--that hadn't been what she'd left when she'd pursued the Grimm. There had been damage to the depot, yes, but that sort of _fire_? 

Desperate to understand, she waved to the barkeep to up the volume. 

_"--media liaisons from the Schnee Dust Company communicated earlier that the blaze is the result of anti-Atlesian terrorism. It is currently suspected that this cell has links to holdout radical factions within the White Fang."_

The feed of the depot cut to an image of Sienna Khan's White Fang flag--it didn't matter that the flag hadn't been used in years, not when there was a _story_. Ruby's jaw firmed, but her echoes of hot anger were not to last, her heart turning to ice as the newsreader continued. 

_"Of the cell suspected to be behind the attack, two members have been apprehended."_

"Oh god," Ruby breathed. _Yang and Blake._ She felt as though she'd been punched, and she turned to look at Weiss, desperately searching her expression. Weiss--she hadn't known either. She'd leaned forward in her chair, seeming to lose even more colour from her face. 

Ruby had been so sure they'd have made it out of the depot. She felt her hands begin to shake. She'd never even _considered_ an alternative, that somehow they'd end up in an even worse situation than she and Weiss had. 

_"--with the remaining member still at large. The SDC has assured both the Atlesian and Mantle Councils that it has devoted its full security regiment to assist local law enforcement in finding the fugitive--"_

Ruby couldn't listen to it any longer. She rocked back on her knees, staring at the scuffed up floorboards, struggling to simply understand. 

The bar around them was silent as the feed cut to an ad break. All Ruby could hear was the overwhelming thunder of her heart in her ears, her hands slowly curling into fists tight enough to send pain lancing through the cut in her palm.

"What do you plan to do?" Weiss directed her question to Farr then, the blunt harshness in her voice ripping Ruby away from the panicked circle of her own thoughts. Weiss pulled away from Nerys' grasp, her expression painful but defiant. "Hand us over?"

Ruby's gaze darted back to Farr's impassive expression, suddenly terrified she already knew the answer, that nobody in Mantle could be trusted. Before she could say anything to plead their case, there was a pounding at the street-level door. Farr twitched, her gaze cutting from Ruby's and toward the darkened stairs, and she pushed herself up from the table. Heart in her throat, Ruby watched her stride toward one one of the windows, parting the blinds a fraction and peering down at the street outside.

"This just gets better and better," Farr said then, snorting softly beneath her breath. She looked toward the barkeep, something silent seeming to pass between them a moment, before the barkeep nodded. Farr relaxed a fraction, backing away from the window. 

"Selling you out to the SDC isn't part of the plan." Farr jerked her head toward the door then. "Albion. Go play the fool and delay them for as long as you can. Nerys. Take our guests out back and hide them." 

Ruby stared at Farr as she spoke in low tones to the barkeep and Albion, feeling entirely shaken. She knew a leap of faith when she saw one. She'd made more than enough of them herself during the Crisis. But Farr was talking about facing down the SDC's security forces for a total stranger. 

With a low groan, Ruby forced herself to her feet. Exhaustion rushed to her head again, but she still crossed the bar to Farr's side. Albion offered her a bright thumbs up, way too enthused by whatever it was they'd planned.

"Why?" she managed, her voice low. Farr didn't answer, focusing instead on the retreating thud of Albion's boots as he descended to face the SDC. Biting down on her lower lip, Ruby looked back to Weiss and watching Nerys pull her to her feet. 

Weiss stumbled, still far too weak, far too _pale_ , her breath coming short and fast. As much of a reprieve as the bar had been, Ruby knew her partner wasn't out of danger. Nerys took Weiss' weight, settling Weiss' good arm about her shoulders and slowly leading her out toward the kitchen. 

Only then did Farr finally spare Ruby a glance, her lips flat and her expression grim. 

"If you're worried this is some kind of trick... don't be. I told you already," Farr said, her voice quiet as she met Ruby's eyes. "I know you from the Western Dead Zone. If not for you and your team, none of _mine_ would still be alive." 

_From the fence this morning,_ Ruby realised with a jolt, and she swallowed unsteadily.

"As for the SDC's take on whatever happened back there at the depot... I can't say I believe it. You're just not that sort of person, Rose." Farr exhaled then, nodding toward the kitchen area beyond the bar. "Now, you gotta get going if we're to pull this off. Even Albion can't play the idiot forever."

###

The maintenance closet was cramped, barely a pace deep, is shelves packed with tubs of old cleaning chemicals, foul smelling rags and vermin bait scattered at each corner. Weiss barely had a chance to catalogue a fraction of the sheer _filth_ before she felt a hand at the small of her back, Nerys shoving her unceremoniously inside. 

Weiss' shoulder jolted badly despite her best effort to cushion it from the impact, pain like pure fire lancing through her flesh and through her skull. She clenched her jaw, clutching at her shoulder with the wet cloth Nerys had passed her, forcing herself to keep the pressure. She just had to rally, she told herself, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment. Just long enough for the concoction of aura stimulants and painkillers she'd been given to kick in. She could already feel it, a low buzz building in her veins--

Abruptly, Weiss' senses were flooded with the heady scent of roses. 

_Ruby_ , she realised, and there wasn't nearly enough time to brace herself before her partner suddenly occupied the little closet space that remained. The door clicked shut behind Ruby, plunging the two of them into claustrophobic dark. For a long, dizzying moment of panic, Weiss couldn't remember how to breathe. 

"Weiss?" Ruby breathed in the dark, hesitant and-- _close_. She'd twisted away, so careful not to touch Weiss but--Weiss shivered, hot-cold, and what attention she had at all was fleeting, too easily snagging on cursed tiny detail, a keen edge of tension building between her shoulders, along her jaw. 

Even without contact, Weiss could feel Ruby trembling. She'd long since hit her limit, but somehow she'd kept moving when Weiss had all but blacked out at the warehouse. She'd gotten them out of there, and against the odds, she'd kept them a step ahead of the SDC.

But Ruby--Ruby had almost died. In her exhaustion, Weiss couldn't keep herself from replaying it, from dredging up every moment of a confrontation she'd been unable to make sense of. All she'd known at the time was that Ruby had been brought to her knees before a figure of twisting shadow, Crescent Rose flung far from her grasp. That she'd been terrified in a way that Weiss had never seen. 

If Weiss had been half a second later, if she'd hesitated even a beat before she'd intervened, then Ruby's death would have been a certainty. She lifted her gaze, searching for Ruby's expression as the darkness began to slowly resolve itself. Her shoulder was agony, waves of it still tinging her thoughts, but--

"You okay?" Ruby asked, her words still soft and worried. "Weiss?" 

Weiss swallowed. She couldn't find an answer, unable to trust herself to speak. She was weak, she was off-balance and of course, Ruby _noticed._

She was too kind and too sweet and too attentive--Weiss' jaw clenched. It was a damn mystery that Ruby still hadn't realised how badly Weiss _wanted_ her. At this point, as she stared at the hazy curve of Ruby's lips in the dark, Weiss was certain that agonising blessing wouldn't last for much longer. 

Outside in the bar, the sound of angry voices shattered the tension between them like glass.

"Okay," Ruby said, her unanswered question dropping like a stone in the silence. She sounded shaken--Weiss didn't want to dwell on the _why._ She listened to Ruby shift in the dark, trying to get a better read on the voices outside. "Can you make out what they're saying?"

Weiss inhaled, clasping at her shoulder, using the pain to help her ignore riotous cacophony of everything she felt for her partner. Far too easily, she pushed them down, bottled them up--just the way she'd done for years now. She had to focus on the task. The danger. The fact that Ruby needed her to be a good partner, not some infatuated _idiot._

Her stomach twisted in bitter rebellion--it really was what her father had always wished of her. 

There were more raised voices beyond the kitchen--probably at the landing on the stairs, Weiss estimated, trying to think beyond the burn of her shoulder, the painkillers, the exhaustion. That huntsman was laying it on thick out there, practically bellowing with drunken, boisterous laughter as he harassed the SDC guards. 

_He's going to get himself shot,_ she thought, and as she listened, his laughter abruptly cut off--very shortly followed by the splinter of wood and the busting of hinges. Weiss heard Ruby hiss, a quiet wince of sympathy.

"--the hell is going on here?!" Weiss heard the barkeep demand, his voice cracking like the snap of a whip. 

"Searching for a dangerous fugitive," a man replied, with just the right level of arrogance that told Weiss that he wasn't following Jacques for the paycheck, but for the dubious joy of the job. Weiss heard two sets of boots enter the bar, their footsteps heavy on the wooden floor. "She was spotted in this area. You--over by the window. Help us out, and we'll consider it a big favour." 

"After throwing my partner through a door? You'd better be joking." Farr's response was all chilled anger, a painful reminder of Winter at her most disdainful. Weiss supposed she had to give credit where it was due. Farr _was_ convincing. "We don't take orders from the SDC, no matter how much weight you want to throw around--"

"You want orders? Here. Right from the top." There was a beat of silence--Weiss frowned, staring into the darkness, trying to guess at what they'd shown. Some sort of authority? A warrant? 

"See, that's the funny thing about shared interest, you know?" the SDC guard continued, sounding delighted at the sudden quiet. "Scherwiz might be unable to see beyond the Crisis and this dying husk of a city, but _Carmine_? Now, he's smart enough to see the mutual benefit in the SDC's business." 

Weiss' thoughts were slowly sharpening. The painkillers and aura stimulants were beginning to pierce the useless haze clouding her brain, the agony of her shoulder easing into something almost manageable--almost. 

_Stephen Carmine?_ Weiss wondered. The man was in her father's pocket, that much she'd already guessed, but to give the SDC this sort of power, no questions asked? 

"Enough. We're looking for a huntress," another SDC guard spoke up, sounding like he'd rather be anywhere else. "She has a very distinctive appearance--red cloak and hair, big scythe. If you've seen her, we need to know where she went." 

The bar was silent again, and Weiss frowned. They hadn't made mention of _her_ , she realised. Damurang had recognised her, and she'd known exactly how high Weiss was on Jacques' most-wanted list. What game was Damurang playing, to keep that sort of information to herself even after the depot had gone up in flames? 

"We don't have the goddamn time for your insubordination--" the first SDC guard snarled, but he cut off as gunfire erupted in the distance, sirens striking up in a howl. 

It was a false positive, probably another group of hunters taking issue with being interrogated--but the SDC guards couldn't risk ignoring it. 

"Forget them," the second SDC guard said. "We've got a job to do."

The first SDC guard sneered something, an insult Weiss didn't care to waste a thought on, and without a further word of apology, the stairs creaked below their boots as they left the establishment. Weiss heard Ruby exhale, the sound of it shuddering, but Weiss herself didn't relax until she felt Ruby release her hold on her scythe. 

"That was too close," Ruby managed, her forehead resting on the wall over Weiss' shoulder with a soft thump. 

Weiss agreed entirely. Things were bad, and they were only going to get worse as the SDC's net closed around them. If Carmine had given Jacques free rein to find the culprits who'd burned down his precious depot, then Weiss knew the security forces would tear the district apart in their search. 

Blake and Yang hung heavy on her mind, another problem with no clear solution. A rescue operation seemed entirely out of the question. Ruby was functioning, _barely_ , but Weiss? 

She flinched instinctively as the storage closet door was thrown open. Ruby lurched away from her, but before she could crash back against the kitchen's countertop, Farr caught her with a steadying hand to her shoulder. 

Knowing better than to trust herself yet, stimulants and painkillers be damned, Weiss resisted the urge to immediately follow her partner, allowing Nerys to pull her arm over her shoulders. Breathless and light-headed, Weiss looked up to see the retreating sway of Ruby's red cloak as she left the kitchen with Farr, her gait slow and painful, the two of them discussing something in low tones. 

Weiss set her jaw, the bitter feeling of uselessness twisting even sharper in her chest. 

As they moved into the bar once more, Weiss spotted the big huntsman, this time sporting a bloodied nose and a rapidly blackening eye. He flashed her a fleeting thumbs up, before wiping at the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. 

"What can I say?" he drawled. "Me and our _guests_ didn't really gel." 

Ahead of them, Farr clicked her tongue in annoyance at his efforts at humour. She stopped to check out the window, peering between a crack in the blinds.

"You've really kicked over the lancer's nest. The district is swarming with the SDC and their drones." Farr's mouth was tight, and she looked across to Ruby with a shake of her head. "Call me cynical, but I'm not sure you're going to pull off this miracle."

Weiss eyed her. Whatever quiet words Farr had shared with Ruby seemed to have earned Ruby's trust, but Weiss was not such an easy sell. No matter how much the team had already helped them, she refused to be complacent, and she refused to put their fate in the hands of an unknown quantity.

_Act,_ she'd been taught so many times by her father. _Before action is taken against you._

"Wait," Weiss told Nerys, and she hated the way her voice was hoarse and touched with pain. She hated the way she still hesitated, even knowing the alternative. "Give me a minute." 

Nerys didn't stop, urging her forward as she insisted, "We _really_ need to look at your shoulder--"

"I need to make a call."

Nerys turned, meeting Weiss' defensive glare with one of worry. While Weiss had the feeling she wanted to argue, _strongly_ , the approach of quiet footsteps on the floorboards drew their attention. 

"Don't worry. I'll take care of her," Ruby said, offering Nerys a smile. When her gaze turned to Weiss, however, her smile faded into something far more serious, her silver eyes uncomfortably assessing.

Nerys finally nodded, offering the fresh wet cloth in an outstretched hand. Silent and uncertain, Weiss tracked Ruby's movements as she closed the gap--still unnaturally slow, even painful. She allowed Ruby to help her back into the kitchen to maintain at least the illusion of privacy, her breath growing short again as she took a seat on the stainless steel countertop. 

Weiss squeezed her eyes shut as Ruby shifted, the subsequent press the cloth to her shoulder searing hard enough that she felt ill with it. Ruby murmured an apology, keeping the pressure on--but her touch was gentle. 

_For Ruby, I would risk anything._ If Weiss hesitated to act now, to do everything in her power to get them out of this situation, then Ruby would pay the price. 

Weiss inhaled, blinking back the dark spots of pain and pulling out her scroll from inside her jacket's pocket. She snapped it open, wishing that her hands were trembling from the pain alone.

"I can leave, you know." Ruby's voice was quiet, as Weiss stared at it in her hands. "It's okay. I know things are really complicated."

Ruby had trusted her enough to let things go that afternoon, and that trust had meant the world to Weiss. But the reality was, Ruby was the leader of the team, and Weiss no longer had the luxury of keeping things like _this_ from her. They both knew it, no matter what concessions Ruby tried to make.

"You can stay," Weiss told Ruby, forcing a wan smile she barely felt. "If I'm honest, I think I'm going to need whatever support I can get." 

Ruby didn't look reassured in the slightest by that answer. Weiss looked aside, swallowing hard and looking back to her scroll. She couldn't even be sure this would work, and there was a non-zero chance that it could just as easily land them in a cell alongside Blake and Yang. 

She entered a number she remembered like the back of her hand, and with a low breath to brace herself, she hit call. 

The dial tone lasted less than a second. 

_"You."_ Whitley's fury practically distorted his voice, and his image flickered into the scroll's visual feed. His features were shadowed, his profile lit up in digital blues--he was answering from a dark room and not a Schnee office somewhere, Weiss noted with a small measure of relief. At least he was alone. _"I knew **you** were involved the moment I saw Belladonna and Xiao Long had--"_

"Glad to see you're pleased I'm still alive," Weiss cut in, her lip curling in immediate, reactive anger at the way he'd snarled her friends' names. At her side, Ruby had stilled, blanching as she recognised Whitley's voice. 

_"Oh, I rather think you'll be wishing you had died when Father gets his hands on you!"_ Whitley swore beneath his breath. _"You have forced a veritable disaster into my hands--"_

"Then _take care_ of it," Weiss snapped, her jaw suddenly clenching so hard she felt lightheaded from it. She didn't have time for some juvenille contest of wills with him! "Believe me, I am not calling you for a lecture--"

_"You're a selfish fool!"_ Whitley flared back, his teeth baring as he hissed, _"Perhaps Father really does have the right of you--"_

"If you can't handle him, then perhaps you're just not as good at damage control as you claim!" Weiss knew he was just lashing out, trying to dig claws beneath her skin, but it was working and she didn't have the presence of mind to deal with his _bullshit._ Spiteful, she added, "Isn't being by his side exactly what you've always wanted?"

_"Personally, I'm rather wondering what it is **you** want, Weiss,"_ Whitley replied, intent on twisting the knife harder. _"If I'd known your little excursion to relive your glory days would blow millions of lien worth of product and months of work to pieces, I'd have seen you stopped at the border!"_

"That's enough!" Ruby broke in, and before Weiss could process it, she'd plucked the scroll from Weiss' weak and trembling grasp. Her expression was tight, her eyes as hard as iron as she told Whitley, "I don't care if you're her brother. You don't get to speak to Weiss like that."

_"Ms. Rose."_ Whitley bit his words out, less a name and more a curse. _"Perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised to find you interfering where you don't belong--yet again."_

Weiss moved to snatch the scroll back from Ruby, refusing to subject her partner to Whitley's venom. Ruby shook her head a fraction, holding it just beyond Weiss' reach. 

"You need to calm down," Ruby told him, her voice low and even. 

_"I'll not take orders from **you** ,"_ Whitley scoffed. _"Put my sister back on the line. I won't be asking again. I've not the patience to humour your fumbling idiocy tonight, Ms. Rose."_

Weiss saw Ruby flinch, just slightly--but she didn't back down, her jaw setting stubbornly. 

"No." 

_"So she's a coward, then. Figures that she'd hide behind you."_

"Whitley--"

_"I just wish I was surprised by her callous disregard for the safety of others, but what more can I expect?"_ Whitley's words were getting faster, more heated. _"She involved you, and he probably already knows all about it! She's as good as consigned you to the slaughter, Ms. Rose--"_

"Shut _up._ " Weiss felt her voice crack, desperate to cut him off. After all his warnings, after keeping confidences no matter the cost to her personal relationships, she would not be undone by his anger. "Whitley, just-- _shut up._ "

Whitley fell quiet for a long moment, and Weiss realised he had to have heard the rasp of pain filtering into her voice.

_"You've gone and gotten yourself hurt,"_ he said, quiet. His expression was shadowed, and he clicked his tongue in disgust. _"Idiot."_

"Like I said, I'm not calling for a lecture," Weiss told him, pressing the wet cloth Ruby had abandoned back onto her shoulder with a low groan. Whitley didn't immediately bite back, so she took that as a sign he was finally listening. "Just how many resources has Father devoted to this?"

Whitley's answering snort was both bleak and flat. _"You've rather pissed him off, so I suspect he's trying to make a point."_

"That's what I was afraid of." Weiss swallowed, galvanising herself to bring herself low. "Whitley. The SDC is close, and you know what will happen if he gets his hands on us. I can't do this without your help."

_"And what, precisely, do you expect me to do?"_ Whitley asked, and in the scroll's video feed, she saw him cradle his face in his hands. _"I am trying to manage a **crisis** of your making. Our every resource is devoted to finding the Mantle culprits. Do you think Father is giving this anything less than his full attention?"_

"I know," Weiss replied, because god, she _did_ and she knew what she was asking of him. There was no other choice. "Just a window, Whitley. That's all we need."

_"...a chance, so you can fight another day, then."_ Whitley sighed, and while his tiny smile was strained, Weiss was surprised to realise it was genuine. _"You know, I'd started to believe he'd finally squeezed the fight out of you. I'm glad to see I'm wrong. But--if I'm to do anything for you, I'll need both time and your location."_

Weiss exhaled, trying not to let the crushing relief filter into her voice as she told him, "I'll send it through."

"You're sure about this?" Ruby asked as Weiss ended the call, her expression open and worried. "This is _Whitley_." 

Weiss' feeling of relief faded, and she cast her partner a weary look.

"I know, better than anyone, that Whitley looks after Whitley," Weiss said, sighing softly. "When it comes to him, there's only one thing I can really count on--that he hates our father more than he hates me."  


###

Waiting on help from Whitley Schnee was hell. 

Ruby had only met him twice. The first time had been during the Crisis' early months, back before any of them understood how long the road ahead really was. He'd been all smiles and reassurances, and despite Weiss' low warnings, he'd seemed pleasant enough at the time. 

The second time had gone far less amicably. By then, the Crisis had been at its height, and despite efforts from Ironwood, Jacques had finally revealed he'd chosen a side--his own. Whitley had backed his father's reversal, and had personally seen to the expulsion of Ozpin's forces from SDC facilities across the kingdoms. 

Too many had died as a result of that decision, and it had been that catastrophic betrayal that had allowed Salem to seize Remnant in a stranglehold.

While Ruby hated absolutes, she struggled to find anything at all redeemable about Whitley. He was a snake in the grass, a reflexive liar, and just as inclined to stab his allies in the back with a smile as to offer them a helping hand. He personified everything so _wrong_ with the SDC, and there was no doubt in Ruby's mind that he brought out the worst in Weiss as well. 

Now, they were forced to rely on him. Ruby's stomach twisted in bitter worry, and she couldn't help but wonder at the concealed cost of his help. She leaned against the wall by the window, watching the dark night through the dusty slits in the blinds and lost in the restless circle of her thoughts. 

Blue lights swarmed through the sea of jagged dark, flickering closer--drones, so many that Ruby had quickly lost count, the blaring hum of their security scans and motion sensors setting her teeth on edge. They swarmed over crumbling brickwork, smashing through rotting wood without hesitation. Airships passed overhead in ceaseless patterns, spotlights moving across rooftops to sear shadow away in blinding light. 

Even the worsening storm wasn't stopping them, and it felt like Whitley's words had lodged in her brain--that Jacques was making a point, all because it was _Weiss_. God, Ruby never should have let this disaster of a mission go ahead.

This--this was all her fault. It twisted in her chest, settling like a weight across her shoulders. How could they salvage any of this? 

At the slow approach of boots on the floorboards, Ruby glanced up and managed a smile. Weiss looked drained. The dark circles beneath her eyes had somehow grown even more pronounced, but at least she no longer looked like she was one stiff wind away from collapsing. Through her shredded, bloodstained shirtsleeve, Ruby caught the tight wrap of clean bandages. 

"You're looking..." Ruby hesitated, trying to find a delicate way of saying, _like you aren't about to die_. Coming up blank, she added lamely, "...a bit better." 

"Whatever Nerys gave me seems to be working," Weiss told her, reaching to touch her injured shoulder with the ghost of a wince. "Painkillers. Probably illegal aura stimulants, now that I'm thinking more clearly, but I suppose I'm hardly in a position to complain about it."

"I'm glad," Ruby said. For a long moment, she let her gaze linger on her partner, drinking in every cut and bruise. Back when they were hiding, in the kitchen--Weiss had seemed so quiet in the darkness. Ruby wouldn't have even known if Weiss had been dying then and there. Her throat grew tight and she looked away, riddled with guilt. "Weiss, I'm sorry." 

For everything. For being a idiot lone wolf, for not calling off the mission, for leaving Yang and Blake to get captured, for getting her partner hurt. Every last decision had _felt_ like the right thing to do at the time--so did she really deserve to call the shots, when her mistakes were this bad?

_Just because things are a little rough right now doesn't mean it was a bad call entirely,_ Yang had told her that morning, already feeling like a lifetime ago. Ruby crossed her arms against her chest, hugging her elbows and trying desperately to steer herself away from the fear and doubt threatening to choke her. 

But this morning, Salem had been nothing more than a nightmare. Now?

Weiss didn't reply, instead resting her good hand to Ruby's shoulder. Her touch lingered, warm and steady, and Ruby swallowed, haltingly reaching up to grasp it with one of her own before looking up to finally meet Weiss' eyes. 

Weiss wasn't angry, wasn't upset--but she was serious. 

"Back at the warehouse--" Weiss started, and Ruby felt a chill run down her spine at her partner's hesitation. "What was that? What happened, Ruby?"

There it was. 

"I don't know," Ruby replied. That wasn't an answer, she knew that, but--it had been so terrifying, and it had all gone so fast that it was only now, in the quiet aftermath, that Ruby was beginning to process it. But if Salem was back, then Weiss _needed_ to know. "I just remember that I messed up and Damurang knocked me out. By the time I woke up, the Grimm--" 

Ruby looked down, her free hand slowly curling into a fist, heedless of the sear of pain through her cut palm. "It had been watching us. Like it had been waiting, the whole time. For me."

"What do you mean?"

"It led me to that warehouse. That's the only way I can describe it. Every time I thought I lost sight of it, suddenly it would be there at the edge of my vision and I'd find myself pursuing again..." Ruby shook her head, and recounting it now she couldn't believe how idiotic she'd been. 

Anger and fear bloomed toxic in her chest, seeming to fill her lungs with it no matter how desperately she tried to keep Yang's words in mind. Her next words came freely, bubbling past her lips in a flood of self-disgust, "Of course it was a trap and I just _ran in_ , right into her hands--"

Weiss went still, her hand tightening a fraction over Ruby's. "What exactly did you see?"

"Salem." Ruby's voice was hoarse and reluctant, and it felt like just the name said aloud was inviting destruction. "I saw her, like she'd been alive all this time--like everything I'd done had all been for nothing. I can't explain what happened any other way," she told Weiss, biting down on her lower lip and refusing to let it tremble. "I've tried, and all I can come up with is that she _somehow_ cheated death and now she's back--"

"Ruby--wait, you _saw_ her?" Weiss asked. Sharp, her gaze darted around the bar, a quick check on who was listening She looked back to Ruby, her expression searching. "Salem? At the warehouse?" 

" _Yes_!" Ruby backed a step away, breaking Weiss' hold on her and burying her face in her hands, breathing to fast, too shallow. She couldn't _think,_ and she looked out the window, desperately searching for answers.

"Ruby--"

"She was _there_ and no matter what I tried, I couldn't do anything to stop her. She was going to kill me, and then--" Ruby broke off then, looking back to Weiss. Quietly, she said, "Then _you_ were there, and I wasn't scared for me anymore. I was just terrified she'd make good on her promise and kill you instead."

The words hung between them, raw and honest and terrifying all on their own. Ruby watched Weiss, trying to read her reaction, to guess what she was thinking.

"I..." Weiss looked away, and Ruby felt her stomach plummet like a stone. "I'm sorry. I didn't see Salem there."

"You think I'd lie about this?" Ruby asked, unbelieving. There was a dull roar building in her ears, shock and confusion and _anger_ striking up in a reactive cocktail she could scarcely process. "Or do you think I'm just _seeing things_ because of what happened--"

"That's not what I said!" Weiss hissed, low and tinged with desperation. "I didn't _see_ anything--but that doesn't mean that I don't believe what you saw."

"She was right in front of me!" Ruby burst out, because why was Weiss doubting her now, when it mattered the most? When Ruby _needed_ her the most? Furious, she rounded on Weiss. "How didn't you see her?!" 

Weiss flinched beneath Ruby's explosive anger, clasping her injured shoulder and looking aside, her expression immediately closing up. Ruby's fury guttered out, the icy grasp of horror nearly choking. She backed away a step. This wasn't right. Taking the situation out on Weiss _wasn't right_ \--

"Sorry," Ruby breathed, swallowing hard. She trusted Weiss--more than she trusted herself. "I'm just--scared. I know you don't think I'm lying."

"I don't," Weiss agreed. After a moment, she sighed, and while the wariness in her expression didn't quite fade, the tension in her shoulders relaxed. She leaned her uninjured shoulder against the wall by the window, looking more tired than ever. "I'm not trying to second guess you, but... there's just been an awful lot about this case that simply hasn't made sense." 

"Agreed." Ruby joined her at the window again, hesitant at first but when Weiss didn't pull away from the light brush of Ruby's shoulder against her own, she inhaled, quietly relieved. Determined to offer an olive branch, she asked, "What's on your mind?"

"Blake and I found Yaaj and Rains hidden in cold storage--the SDC was covering up their deaths. You made the right call." Weiss cast her a fleeting, sidelong smile, before it faded into weary seriousness. "Cause of death was too hard to say, but their injuries were as... extensive and varied as Lawson's had been." 

"After all that, and the SDC operation was a total bust. We didn't learn anything." Miserable, Ruby crossed her arms against her chest--then paused. Or hadn't they? Weiss was right. So much about the case didn't make sense, the facts seeming to vary as wildly as the victims themselves.

Ruby stared out the window, chewing on her lower lip as she considered it. If she had to admit it, Salem's appearance hadn't made sense either. It had been sudden, forgoing the dark grandeur Ruby had come to expect for a lonely ambush in a broken warehouse. 

She'd been quiet, Ruby remembered, careful not to cut herself on the sharp edges of the memory. She'd smiled. She hadn't made mention of the horrors she'd promised to visit upon Ruby, the threats against her loved ones. Her words were impersonal, dispassionate when Ruby could have only expected earned hatred. 

The pieces were _there,_ Ruby realised, her breath catching and her mind racing. They were just waiting to line up. 

Salem had appeared for Ruby, but she hadn't for Weiss. When Weiss had arrived, the Grimm had returned. What did that mean? That it was--dependant on Ruby _herself_? Unbidden, images of Lawson's horrifically Dust-burnt face reared up in her mind, juxtaposed with the minor pockmarks in his hunter identification. There had been injuries consistent with death stalkers, native to Vale. Beacon, where Lawson would surely have fought them. 

Ruby still remembered her first encounter with one--if not for Weiss, she'd have died that day. How easily would another such encounter remain with a young hunter, eventually developing into a full-on--

"Fear," Ruby breathed, reeling as though she'd been punched. Her heart pounded in her ears, brilliant certainty breaking like the dawn in her chest. "That's it. It's gotta be!"

"Ruby, you're not making any sense--"

"The Grimm!" Ruby rounded on Weiss, her exhaustion melting away beneath pure excitement at her realisation. "It mimicked our worst fears, brought them to life to--to what? Why would it do that? Why would it _bother_?"

"Grimm feed on negative emotion." Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose, but her blue eyes were sharpening as Ruby's words hit home. She looked back to Ruby, the corner of her mouth lifting in the ghost of a ferocious smile as she offered, "The more terrified you are, the stronger it becomes after it feeds. I've never heard of anything like it."

"Salem--she did just the same." The disturbing similarities in their techniques in doing so sat uneasily with Ruby, but it was drowned out by sheer, dizzying relief. She found herself smiling. Salem _wasn't_ back. "Everything makes sense--how different the injuries have been, the victim choice, the attack patterns--"

Her words dying in her throat, Ruby turned half a step, staring out the window and into the dark storm beyond. The SDC was still searching for them in the night, the airships with their mounted spotlights passing ceaselessly overhead. 

Nothing had changed but for the creeping dread in the air, and Ruby's heart began to pound. 

The nearest searchlight moved across the rooftop of an apartment complex just a few buildings over. As it passed, Ruby caught it--the flicker of the spotlight over branching antlers, and in the wavering line between light and dark, reality itself seemed to bleed.

Ruby's every thought froze. She staggered away from the window, one step and then two, reaching blindly for Crescent Rose and a yawning pit of fear opening up in the pit of her stomach. _How_?

"Ruby?" she heard Weiss ask, her question practically drowned out in the rush of pure panic. 

"It's back." 

Weiss' face drained of the colour she'd so painstakingly regained. She turned, but before she could get close to the window, Ruby threw out an arm, her heart pounding so hard her skull ached with it. It wasn't safe, and a part of Ruby's mind whispered that nowhere was. 

Even after Weiss had _buried_ it, the Grimm was still alive, still hunting them--hunting _her_ , Ruby had to admit that! It was tracking her fear, her weakness, like a beowolf stalked the scent of blood. Her mind raced, and breathlessly, she tried to reassess their options. How much time did they have? Even with Weiss awake and alert, they weren't in a condition to survive another fight--not with something like _that._

They had to escape, Ruby realised with dawning horror. It was the only way. If they ran, if they played their hand right, then perhaps there was a chance. 

"We've got to run," Ruby rasped, jolting as she remembered--the other hunters in the bar. Farr, Albion, Nerys and the barkeep, everyone who had covered for them for the SDC. It would cut through them to get to her. Desperate to get the message across, she raised her voice. " _All_ of us need to run. Right now--!"

Ruby's aura flared painfully in the back of her skull, and she barely galvanised the remaining shreds of it in time before the wall and window alike collapsed inwards in a deafening _crash_. Her defences shattered beneath the impact, and she was sent skidding across the floorboards on her back. 

Broken glass, brick and powdered plaster showered down over her, and it was on blind instinct alone that she caught the Grimm's brutal overhead strike on Crescent Rose's haft. The wicked claws came to a half just a handspan before her face, and she inhaled, pained. 

Above her, seeming to devour all light in its twisting shadow, the Grimm rumbled--a rasping, otherworldly laugh, barely audible over the howl of the storm at its back. Ruby stared up into its eyes, bottomless pits of fire sunken deep into its skull. 

She bared her teeth, defiant, but in the back of her head, she heard it--Salem's voice, just the whisper of it enough to drive fear in deep. 

Ruby cried out as her block trembled, half a breath away from breaking--gunfire ricocheted off its white skull, the bones jutting from its shoulders, and it looked up with a furious hiss. Desperate, Ruby followed its stare. 

"Move your ass, Rose!" Farr shouted, reloading her gunblade with a twirling snap and advancing.

Ruby set her jaw, seizing her chance and rolling free before the Grimm could strike again, its claws slicing gashes into the wood in her wake. Her forced burst of speed was dizzying, and as Ruby caught herself on a table, she looked over her shoulder. Farr had moved in like lightning, Albion just a step behind her, the both of them placing themselves in the Grimm's path without a shred of either hesitation or self-preservation.

Before she could shout again for them to run, that she was the one it wanted, someone grabbed her shoulder--Nerys, Ruby realised as she was all but thrown toward where Weiss sagged by the broken window. Ruby hit the wall beside her partner, the impact enough to send her head spinning, but... Weiss' face was white, and Ruby could see more blood soaking through her shirtsleeve-- 

"Go!" Nerys shouted, over the sound of gunfire and furious fighting. She drew an antlered staff from her belt, the length of it unfolding in a snap. "We'll be fine!"

Ruby stared back at her, torn. None of them had any idea of the danger they were in, and--

Weiss' fistful in the front of her cloak snatched her from her thoughts, crashed home the single, terrifying reality that they had to run or they'd both die here. Wordless and afraid, Ruby helped her partner toward the gaping hole that had only recently been occupied by the window. Beyond, the storm raged and lightning flashed overhead. 

Weiss hesitated just before the gap, looking over her shoulder to Ruby.

"Out of the frying pan..." she said, forcing her words out between her teeth and extending a hand. 

A row of small glyphs bloomed, blinding white against the storm, both a help and a hindrance. Their escape route had been broadcast for all to see, and throughout the district, Ruby heard the nerve-wracking drone of automatons locking onto their location. 

Weiss took the plunge, and it was a miracle that she was able to make it from one glyph to the next. She staggered as she landed badly on the neighbouring rooftop, swaying on her feet and clawing at her injured shoulder. There wasn't time to stop, wasn't time to check on her--Ruby was half a beat behind, dragging Weiss to her feet and urging her to keep moving. 

Whipped to her on the wind, Ruby caught the sound of shouting from another rooftop. She lashed out with Crescent Rose, only just in time to deflect the spray of bullets. Gasping, she pushed her rain-plastered hair from her eyes with the back of her wrist, and together, she and Weiss moved across the rooftops. 

It was slow, slower than Ruby knew they had to move but it was all they could manage, and they hadn't made it even a block away from the bar before Ruby caught it--the telltale scrape of metal up the side of the building. Automatons, closing in on their position at blinding speed. 

Ruby's aura seared warning, and releasing her steadying hold on Weiss, she roared for her partner to make more glyphs. Grim, Ruby turned back for the automatons, Crescent Rose unfurling again in her hands.

Her teeth set, and feverish, she looked back to the ruins of the bar, searching for the Grimm in the night. They didn't have time for this--

Three of them came at her from over the edge of the roof, moving on all fours and their visors jarring red in the darkness. Ruby snarled and lunged for them, putting herself between them and Weiss without a thought. She turned aside the first drone's strike with a gasp, barely keeping her footing as she whirled Crescent Rose in to defend against the second's arcing plasma blade. 

"Ruby!"

_Too slow._ Ruby's knee gave out as Crescent Rose was torn from her grasp. Nearly blinded by the rain, she looked up in time to see its sizzling blade lance in for her throat--

Gunfire cracked. 

The automaton's visor exploded, and Ruby lifted her arm just in time to shield her face from the shower of hot metal fragments. Ruby's lungs burned, dragging in deep, shuddering gasps as she dove for her weapon. No matter how exhausted she was--she _knew_ those weapons. She knew their sound, their tempo--she'd spent entirely too long fighting their wielder. 

_Damurang._ She stood amidst the broken drones, pistols in hand and her expression a cold mask of derision. She wasn't looking to Ruby, however, whatever threat she may have posed already assessed and dismissed--but to Weiss. 

Weiss was barely standing under her own power, gasping for breath and fresh blood matting the side of her head. White light had gathered at her fingertips, and her expression was pure, furious defiance as she stared down Damurang.

Damurang didn't move. Her suit jacket was torn and filthy, blood soaking through the white fabric. Ruby and Yang had landed more than a few solid hits from her, but despite the damage, she still seemed like she could go another five rounds. 

Ruby swallowed, her grasp tightening on Crescent Rose. What kind of monster _was_ she? 

"You both have no idea of the damage you've caused," Damurang told them, her words slow and her voice ice. 

As Ruby began to size up a plan of attack while her attention was still on Weiss, Damurang readjusted her target, instead aiming squarely for Ruby. Ruby froze, and Damurang shook her with a click of her tongue, as if disappointed that Ruby would even try. 

Satisfied Ruby had been warned, she looked back to Weiss. "If it were up to me, I'd see you both quietly taken care of. But unfortunately, it's not, and you've got help in very high places."

"God," Weiss groaned, and the light vanished from her fingertips as she lowered her hand. "You're one of Whitley's." 

Damurang. Ruby's jaw clenched so hard it ached. Whitley had sent them _Damurang._

"Very astute. Now, I suggest you both come along quietly this time," Damurang told them, holstering her gun. As she advanced on Weiss, she cast a slow look over her shoulder toward Ruby. "Or you'll end up exactly like your friends." 

_Yang and Blake,_ Ruby thought, meeting Damurang's gaze with a glare, furious that their fates had been put in the hands of a monster who took joy in so much pain. 

The band of bruises about Ruby's throat was proof enough that Damurang had fought to kill, that they couldn't _trust her_. But none of that mattered now, did it? The Grimm would be on their tails, and the longer they delayed, the closer it--

The air grew heavy with a chill not quite physical, and Ruby felt it prickle like frost through her aura. She cast a look over her shoulder, desperately trying to resolve it in the dark--but she knew it was there with frozen certainty. 

Her grasp tightened on Crescent Rose's haft, letting Damurang's orders to _move_ simply bounce off of her, focusing instead on the feeling of approaching horror creeping through her chest. There was no more time left, she realised, and it was only then did she look back to Damurang. 

Damurang had rounded on her, more annoyed by silent defiance than anything Ruby had ever said--and then she paused. The twisted distaste on her lips fell away, the buried anger in her eyes fading--Ruby stared at her, unable to quite identify her expression. 

Did--did _Damurang_ feel it too? The ice in the air, the dread in her blood, the unmistakble feeling of being hunted through the night? Ruby couldn't look away, breathless, watching as Damurang drew both guns and turned to face the dark. 

That expression, Ruby realised, as it felt like the world itself waited with bated breath. It was genuine fear. 

Lightning split the sky, washing everything in fleeting, searing silver--the rooftop, the prey, and the coiling Grimm.

_"Shit--!"_ Damurang snarled. 

Ruby faded back as the Grimm surged for her, its bladed claws keening for her blood as she struggled to put distance between them. She turned aside the first blow with the flat of Crescent Rose, the impact jarring up her shoulder and sending her stumbling. 

She reeled, weak with exhaustion but there was no other _choice_ but to keep fighting until she broke--Damurang flashed between them in a burst of pale light, catching the Grimm's strike on a pistol and weaving beneath the next, seeming to slide beneath its furious attacks like liquid. 

They traded a series of blows faster than Ruby's wearied mind could follow, but Damurang wasn't firing, keeping on the defensive as she wove and ducked--why? 

Ruby didn't have time to wonder as the Grimm finally caught Damurang on the backfoot, locking her in a block and bearing down on her with a starving rumble so deep Ruby's skin crawled. Damurang's teeth bared, and she snarled something unintelligible. 

That was when the rooftop erupted into a hellscape of fire. 

Ruby was blown backwards with the force of the blast, heat scorching in her lungs. She impacted against a broken section of wall on the next rooftop, hard enough that she saw stars, that Crescent Rose clattered to the ground. Falling to her hands and knees as her strength momentarily failed her, Ruby looked up, unable to tear her eyes away from the firestorm arcing up into the night sky. 

She coughed, wiping the blood from her mouth with the back of her wrist. Weiss--where was _Weiss_?

Weiss had somehow reacted in time, anchoring herself down to the rooftop's edge with a dark glyph. She'd fallen to a knee, and at the edge of the fire, she'd protected herself from the whirling flames with a large glyph that seemed to flicker and fade dangerously. 

How much longer could she maintain it? Ruby coughed again, her lungs wheezing as she took hold of Crescent Rose with trembling hands. The fire--why was there so much _fire?_

She forced herself to her feet, dizzy with the effort. The Grimm had brought out Salem when it had fought Ruby. Just like Salem, this fire wasn't _real_ , for all that it would kill just as surely. 

_This fire._ Ruby gasped, seeking air that no longer seemed to exist. She looked to the centre of the vortex, to where Damurang and the Grimm no longer grappled. _Is it what Damurang fears?_

Damurang's aura crackled red and fitful against the flames, a pistol lifted in futile effort to shield her face from the terrible heat. The Grimm, however--Ruby swallowed, her eyes wide. The Grimm was _howling_ , clutching at its skull as its shadows seemed to be driven away, screaming from the flames. Blindly, it lashed out at Damurang and only barely missing. 

It was distracted by the flames, Ruby realised. It was _vulnerable._

_Now!_ Ruby snarled, seizing the only chance she'd ever get. She tasted blood at the back of her throat as she embraced her semblance with open, desperate need. 

She flashed for the rooftop, her boots skidding in the rain as she moved, using every last shred of speed she had left. 

The world slowed. As Ruby moved, the Grimm shifted, as if sensing her movement, and Ruby looked into its fathomless, sunken red eyes. If Ruby attacked it head on, then she knew would end just the way it had at the warehouse, and this time Weiss wouldn't be able to save her. 

She looked beyond it, to where Weiss barely held on through the fire. 

Weiss understood what Ruby needed in the space of an instant. Her blue eyes blazing, she lifted her hand, a new glyph solidifying just as Ruby streaked past the Grimm. She rebounded off the glyph at a sharp angle, Crescent Rose snapping out and severing the Grimm's arm at its elbow.

The Grimm recoiled from Ruby and Damurang with a shriek, the sound of it sick and warped and almost _human_. 

Ruby somehow made it to Weiss' side, crashing to her knees and for an instant, her vision grew terrifyingly dark. Had--had she done it? She forced herself to look up, staring at the Grimm and watching it claw at its stump, but to its left Damurang was already moving. She flashed forward in a teleport, grasping the back of Ruby's hood and Weiss by her arm. 

The edge of the rooftop flashed toward them in what felt like a series of disjointed photographs. At the very edge, scoured in soot, Ruby caught the outline of a complex rune formation. It glowed red as Damurang reached it, and around them, the world blurred.

With a cold abruptness that left Ruby reeling, the hellfire, the rooftop and the Grimm's howling screams were gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *nervous laughter* 
> 
> Hey guys, long time no see, huh? It's a long story, really. Firstly, a friend of mine convinced me to play Warframe and that ended up _devouring my soul_ for around about six or seven months once I realised Rhino was my actual facts soulmate, and then the Destiny DLC Warmind came out and was actually pretty alright. 
> 
> In the middle of all of that, I'm having a Writing Confidence Crisis like no other, but in my attempt to power through, I complete an inital version of chapter 15. I then immediately tossed it in the bin, because _holy fuck_ it was honestly terrible. 
> 
> Now, here we are, eight months later and a solid rethink of what this chapter has to be. Hopefully, my hard work has paid off and you guys enjoyed!
> 
>  
> 
> ~~PS nothing anyone can do will stop me from continuing to add cameos of characters from other fandoms I love. Lookin at you, Lightning, Snow and Vanille.~~

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to hang out or chat (or snap up a few prompts when I put out a call for them) please come visit me at my tumblrs (zerrat.tumblr.com - personal plus terrible memes) or verdantei.tumblr.com (geared more toward RWBY)).
> 
> And, I guess, if you want the most Up To Date Progress on what I'm writing, I have it logged on wip-it.tumblr.com. Which can admittedly get a little spammy as I crack the whip on myself to get writing. But! I do tend to update that daily.


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